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Tue UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PUBLICATIONS 
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THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


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THE 
RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


A HISTORICAL STUDY 
OF THE 


ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 


By We, 
FREDERICK OWEN NORTON 


Professor of New Testament Literature 
Crozer Theological Seminary / 





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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO ILLINOIS 


CopyRIGHT 1924 By 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 


All Rights Reserved 


Published January 1924 


Composed and Printed By 
The University of Chicago Press 
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 


To 
ERNEST DE WITT BURTON 
UNDER WHOSE INSPIRATIONAL GUIDANCE 
I STUDIED THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS 
AND WORKED OUT “MY GOSPEL” 
THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 


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PREFACE 


This book is intended to present an interpretation in 
narrative form of the source materials for the origin and 
early development of Christianity. It is hoped that it 
may serve two purposes. By the genera! reader it may 
be read continuously as a story without attention to the 
source references or to the supplementary reading; by 
the student it may be used as a guide to the study of the 
most significant period of the world’s history. 


TO THE STUDENT 


The student is advised to read a whole chapter 
through consecutively in order to get a comprehensive 
view of the subject such as will assist him in seeing the 
details in proper perspective, and then to read it again 
section by section. Before this second reading the 
source references should be carefully studied in the order 
given and as the section is read the student should recall 
or find again the references on which each statement of 
fact or of inference is based. The principal source book 
is the New Testament. The student should go directly 
to this collection of documents and should use the text- 
book merely as a guide to assist him in reconstructing the 
history from the sources. In order to emphasize the 
importance of this direct method of studying history the 
source references for each section are given at the begin- 
ning of each chapter. 

After the chapter or assignment is thus worked over, 
parallel passages from the list of books under ‘‘supple- 


ix 


x PREFACE 


mentary reading”? should be read and the ideas there 
presented tested by the source references. Any point 
not yet clear to the student should be noted, and the 
reference books examined for assistance. ‘The supple- 
mentary readings should be taken up in the order given, 
and at least half of them should be carefully read in order 
to give a reasonably varied point of view. 


TO THE TEACHER 


It should be borne in mind that the text of each 
chapter is not to be regarded as an exhaustive or detailed 
treatment of the topic. It is intended to serve as a 
guide to the interpretation of the source material and 
as an indication of what may be considered significant, 
or, in other words, to help the student to gain what many 
lack—-a proper perspective. 

All the supplementary reading and such other books 
on the subject as may be available should be examined 
for greater detail and illustrative and explanatory 
material to be given to the student in lecture and oral 
discussion. A list of books for this purpose together 
with suggested topics for investigation is given in 
Appendix I. | 

The material of this book has been tested for several 
years in undergraduate college classes with gratifying 
results. It has been found that, as a rule, one section of 
a chapter has ample suggestion for an hour of lecture and 
discussion. 

The student should be required to give the source 
references on which each statement or inference is based. 
In order to do this without using a reference book, he 
must thoroughly master all the references given at the 


PREFACE xl 


beginning of each chapter—not necessarily memorizing 
them but making the substance his own and locating 
them definitely in his mind. To assist him in doing 
this to the best advantage, no references are given in 
the body of the text, and all quotations from the sources 
are put within quotation marks. 

The quotations from the New Testament in the main 
follow Dr. James Moffatt’s excellent translation, but I 
have taken the liberty of changing it and giving my own 
translation in part or whole wherever it has seemed 
desirable in order to bring out the exact meaning of the 
original. 

After the student has made his preparation according 
to the suggestions in the first part of this Preface, and 
the topics have been finally canvassed in class, he should 
be required to write chapters of his own and keep these 
in book form to be examined and criticized from time to 
time by the instructor. When this is done he will have 
at the conclusion of the course a history of the origin of 
Christianity written by himself, and no matter what may 
be its defects, the work of putting the results of his study 
into this definite, constructive form will be of the ae 
est value to him. oy 

It is believed that the method here outlined will assist 
the student in gaining a scientific approach to the study 
of the original documents on which the history of this 
momentous period is based, and especially to the New 


Testament. 
FREDERICK OWEN NORTON 


Crozer THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
January 1, 1924 


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CONTENTS 


TNTRODUCTION: UO LHE (SOURCES 0 uname Cah e cai (in te 
1. Paul’s Letters . °. Se eae ae eae 
2. The First Three Gospels I Ba oe nea ete (ive 
3. The Book of Acts . 
. The Fourth Gospel and Other Ganonient Wriies 
. Extra-canonical Sources pi i aha gun 


un 


CHAPTER 
I. THe GENERAL FIELD . 


PENECESSILY TOP NL MIS CUCL Yeni eet alnrnawl sian Iman 


I 
2. Universal Empire . 

3. Means of Communication 

4. Political and Social Conditions 

5. Religion and Morality . . . 


PC THEA WOGA LL LGLDo Mica Nien i. 
1. Palestine and Its People . 
2. Political Conditions 
3. Judaism . 
4. The Messianic Hone 
5. The Dispersion . 4 
6. “The Fulness of Time” 


Il. THe BEGINNING 
1. John the Baptist 
2. Jesus’ Early Life ! 
3. His Call and Temptation . 
4. His Relationship to John . 
5 


MAPlistPublic Ministry wc ine Mati We ti iii euia Gas 


IV. THE MESSAGE. . ° 
1. The Kingdom of Gea 
2. Its Citizenship . : 
RP LESMCONSEILULION Wtieny on PA Th aie iRils 


XIV CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 


a.God'and Man ti, 9/2) Sic AORN, ou 0 
5.0 Man and God. Mis id | saison yin, ei a aaa 
6) Man and) Man.) eaiietee oie acts i ih ae 


Vi. D He CONFLICT 00 0 ee ieee ei Sls ane te 
1. Early Popularity) 9200" yo. ns ce 
2. (increasing Opposition. y,  eiica uae ane kee en 
ig. pL he: Crisis 0 Lo yt ee re ie aaah aes a 


4) The Retirement =. 25) ¥ qsy 2c ated es 
5.4. he Final Advance’ 7.4. dics lois hee 


VI. THE TRAGEDY. . SN ORC ES er 
1. The Triumphal Eater Bi Dee os. le, duels! enema Re 

2. Conflict with the Religious Tete = Wuyuevislics elke | eens 2 

3: Che Plot’and:Preparation\s.2n @.. | a: ae Lee ee 

4. DheCATrest oye Cae an) eared eg water 

soi Lhey drial 74340) SO ee Ue Sto, re Rit et a 

6:) The Execution (0 ss Us. gianni, beri. ja le rr 
VIL.«THe NEW BEGINNING 2 \) Vien. hace eke 
q. Lhe Flight into Galilee (oy). 8 oy ers 

2. The Conviction of Resurrection 2. sige ee 

g. The’ Return'to Jerusalem, 770°". 3." 3) ee 

4. ‘Che First Community 407%) 1.7") 
VIII. THE NEw ARENA. . . 0G) oe LR ta eee 7 
x. The First Community “ised roc Para HRC G1) hs 404 

2. Conflict with Judaism inn, yee. ee ae 

3. Lhe Broadening Wield 2 \¥) Gy ane.) Wen) 0 

4.) Lhe: Decisive’Step 22: yo, Weyl. eee ae Tt 

Ss, abhe NewiName | (702.0). a aie i a 


TX. THE ENE WSL BADER 102 fv) (Mot tne oye le are ey 
1. His Preparation (295); eae cee ee ne 


2. His'Gall hays oye |. 20) See eae alacant on a 
3. His ‘Probation’: .) > ..\7,-. ae eee, te) 
4.) His Message ce) 2, \e 2s iy ene ne) ead a 
A LHE NEW! PROGRAM?!) a) supe eele nieiany lke ey 
rei Galatia 608.008 ets ey Berean none lice IL aa 


126: Macedonia!) sels iaen atu Chilo) Melt iia hat ie oi van ame 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


>. 


XII. 


ZMIRCHATAM OS OE 1e eae 
Ars ASIat Ls 
5. Rome 


THe NEw CONFLICT. . 

1. The Judaizers 

2. The Jerusalem fone 
3. The Antioch Crisis 

4. The Galatian Defection 

5. The Corinthian Revolt 


THE VICTORY . : 

. The Destruction of Hetncatern 
. Records of the “Good News” 
. Prejudice and Persecution 

. The Later Message : 
. Opposition and Organization . 
. Triumph 


Num BW DH H 


APPENDIX 


I. OUTLINE OF A BOOK TO BE WRITTEN BY THE STUDENT 


II. SpectAL Topics FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION OR AS- 


III. 
IV. 


INDEX ., 


SIGNED PAPERS 
A WoRKING BIBLIOGRAPHY . , 


CHRONOLOGICAL LABLEVCM cule 


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INTRODUCTION 


THE SOURCES 
1. Paul’sLetters 
. The First Three Gospels 
. The Book of Acts 
. The Fourth Gospel and Other Canonical Writings 
. Extra-canonical Sources 


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The sources for the study of the origin of Christianity 
are largely found in one volume, the New Testament. 
The main sources are the gospels, Paul’s Letters, and 
the Book of Acts. To these should be added the early 
church Fathers and the very brief testimony of five 
non-Christian writers, one Jewish and the others Roman 
—Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, and Lucian. 


Ty) PAUL S) LETTERS 


The earliest of the New Testament writings and the 
most important from a historical point of view are the 
letters of Paul. ‘These were written between the years 
so and 65 A.D. Of the ten letters ordinarily attributed 
to Paul the genuineness of seven is practically unques- 
tioned. These are I Thessalonians, Galatians, I and II 
Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon, and 
these are the letters also that give us the clearest intima- 
tion of the part Paul played in the rise of Christianity. 
To these may be added three others: II Thessalonians, 
Colossians, and Ephesians, which are second to the 
others both because there is some question as to their 
genuineness and because they do not furnish as clear 
data for our investigation. We may also include I and 


xvii 


XVIil INTRODUCTION 


II Timothy and Titus, which, although they are not 
generally accepted as coming from Paul in their present 
form, yet probably contain some genuine Pauline ele- 
ments, and in any case give some valuable hints as to the 
close of his life and the development of Christian thought 
at the time they were written. 


2. THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS 


The first three gospels are commonly called the Synop- 
tic Gospels. The earliest of the group is Mark, probably 
written between 65 and 68 a.p. It is the shortest and 
most concise, and by its simplicity of style and vivid 
description suggesting the words of an eye-witness it 
bears in itself the stamp of originality and verisimilitude. 
Its purpose as indicated in the brief introduction, or 
rather title (vs. 1), was simply to write the “good news” 
(gospel) about Jesus who the author takes for granted 
is the Christ. He does not write, as does one of his 
successors, to prove that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. 
He does not raise the question at all. He takes it 
for granted. He tells what he knows simply and 
directly. 

The author of this Gospel is doubtless the John 
Mark mentioned in Acts and Paul’s Epistles. Papias, 
bishop of Hierapolis, in Asia Minor (130-60 A.D.) tells 
us that Mark was Peter’s interpreter, and wrote accu- 
rately all he remembered of what Peter used to tell of 
Jesus’ words and deeds. The internal evidence is 
strongly confirmatory of this statement. He was an 
eye-witness of the closing events of Jesus’ life in Jerusalem 
when a young lad (cf. Mark 14:52), and an attendant of 
Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. 


INTRODUCTION xix 


Though a Jew, he was well acquainted with the gentile 
world, and probably wrote his book for the use of 
missionaries. 

The Gospel of Matthew as we have it was written in 
Greek with the evident purpose of confirming the faith 
of the Jewish Christians by showing that Jesus was the 
Messiah of prophecy; that he had come to the Jews 
proclaiming the immediate advent of the Kingdom of 
God and explaining its nature; that the Jews had rejected 
him, and that in consequence he had founded a universal 
kingdom, the true successor of the Old Testament reli- 
gion and yet absolutely independent of Judaism. The 
purpose is indicated by the first verse and the citations 
of Old Testament prophecy as purposely fulfilled in 
specific instances in the life of Jesus, the repeated warn- 
ings against his rejection, the scathing denunciation of 
the religious leaders, his triumphal Resurrection after his 
rejection, and his commission to his disciples to “‘go and 
make disciples of all nations.” 

Papias says: ‘‘Matthew wrote the sayings (logia) 
of the Lord in Hebrew (Aramaic) and everyone inter- 
preted them as he was able.” Matthew as it has come 
to us was written in Greek and contains almost all the 
narrative material of Mark in almost the same words 
but often in different order, the arrangement being made 
evidently with the purpose of bringing together teach- 
ings on the same subject and connecting them with 
appropriate incidents. A comparison of this narrative 
material shows that Mark was the original. The internal 
evidence shows that Matthew was written after 70 A.D. 
Its probable date is 75 to 80 A.D. If one of its chief 
sources was the “‘ Logia”’ written by the apostle Matthew, 


XX INTRODUCTION 


this fact would naturally account for its name, espe- 
cially if, as seems to have been the case, practically the 
whole of that document was incorporated into the new 
work. 

The Third Gospel was ascribed by ancient writers 
dating from the middle and end of the second century 
to the Luke who is mentioned in the New Testament as 
a Greek physician and a companion of Paul. This 
testimony has been accepted by most modern authorities. 
The aim and method of the author and the sources from 
which he drew his materials are clearly indicated in the 
remarkable Prologue from which we may note the 
following points: (1) there were in existence many other 
written gospels at this time; (2) these were not written 
by eye-witnesses but by those who got their material 
from eye-witnesses; (3) Luke was one of these; he was 
not an eye-witness but wrote from oral and written 
testimony of eye-witnesses; (4) he had carefully studied 
out the history in detail; (5) oral teaching was a custom 
of the time; (6) his purpose was to tell as completely 
and accurately as possible from accessible materials the 
story of Jesus’ life; (7) considerable time must have 
elapsed since the events had occurred, at least a genera- 
tion, thirty or forty years. 

An examination of Luke’s Gospel indicates that he 
used Mark as his principal source for the life of Jesus, 
and that he had also in common with our First Gospel 
another document which contained many sayings of 
Jesus not recorded by Mark. In addition to these two 
sources he had a document or documents apparently 
not known to the author of the First Gospel, and prob- 
ably made more use than he of the oral testimony of 


INTRODUCTION xxl 


eye-witnesses. This Gospel and our Matthew were 
probably written about the same time and independently 
of each other. 


3. THE BOOK OF ACTS 


This work was written about fifty years after the 
Crucifixion. Christianity had spread from Jerusalem 
over the Roman Empire. Luke, the Greek physician, 
the companion and friend of Paul who had written the 
carefully ordered story of Jesus’ life, now wrote another 
treatise to bring his story down to date and to commend 
Christianity to the officials of the Roman government 
by showing that while its leaders had been persecuted 
by the Jews they had invariably been exonerated from 
all blame and protected by the Roman government. He 
tells especially the story of the trials and triumphs of 
his friend Paul from Jerusalem throughout the Roman 
Empire to Rome, showing that opposition to Paul’s 
work came entirely from the jealousy of the Jews while 
he had been honored and protected by the Roman 
officials. 

It is probably because it does not accord with his 
purpose and for the obvious reason that it would not 
have been safe or politic to censure the imperial govern- 
ment that Luke draws the curtain before the cruel 
tragedy of Paul’s execution under the bloody Nero. As 
he was an eye-witness of much that he related in this 
treatise, and no doubt used his careful method of investi- 
gation into all that he did not witness, his work is an 
exceedingly valuable source for the account of the begin- 
nings of the church, and for Paul’s life second only to 
Paul’s own letters. 


XX INTRODUCTION 


4. THE FOURTH GOSPEL AND OTHER CANONICAL 
WRITINGS 

The author of the Gospel of John was probably 
acquainted with all three of the Synoptic Gospels and 
with Paul’s letters. He does not aim to tell the story 
of Jesus’ life. He takes it for granted. He attempts to 
explain Jesus’ life in conformity with the philosophic 
ideas current in Asia Minor at the end of the first century. 
His purpose, as expressed in the thirty-first verse of 
chapter 20, was to keep Christians from forsaking Chris- 
tianity because of false ideas about God’s relation to 
the world, ideas which did away with Jesus’ work as a 
mediator. 

The discourses attributed to Jesus seem to have 
been reproduced as they had been worked over in 
meditation through many years of contact with the 
philosophical problems of the day, and had become an 
integral part of the author’s own thought. They are 
given as direct quotation because of the author’s belief 
that the Holy Spirit spoke directly through him, accord- 
ing to his report of Jesus’ saying: “The Holy Spirit 
whom the Father will send in my name will teach you 
everything and recall to you everything I have said.” 
This work was probably written at Ephesus about the 
year 100 A.D. 

The other books of the New Testament, written for 
the most part later than those we have enumerated as 
our principal sources, are interesting for the light they 
throw on conditions of life and thought among the early 
Christians, but do not add anything important to our 
knowledge of the historical facts. The most important 
for our purpose are the Apocalypse and Hebrews, both 


INTRODUCTION XXili 


written about the close of the first century, as giving 
us the reaction of Christian thought to the shocking 
persecution under Nero, the cruel attempts to enforce 
emperor-worship under Domitian, and the dangers of 
apostasy and indifference as the years passed on and the 
day of the Lord’s long-expected return did not come. 


5: EXTRA-CANONICAL SOURCES 


he early church Fathers writing from about 95 A.D. 
constitute our chief sources for the history of the develop- 
ment of the early church after the close of the Apostolic 
age. This literature is very voluminous. The most 
valuable documents for our purpose are the letter of 
Clement of Rome to the church at Corinth, deprecating 
trouble that had arisen there and protesting against 
the ousting from office of certain presbyters (ca. 95); 
the letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, to several 
churches in Asia Minor when a prisoner on his way to 
Rome for martydrom (ca. 115); the so-called ‘‘Teaching 
of the Twelve Apostles,” a church manual of service and 
discipline (ca. 130); and the ‘Apologies,’ of Justin 
Martyr, or literary defenses of Christianity against 
heathen criticism (ca. 155). To these should be added 
the writings of the ‘‘Father of Church History,” Euse- 
bius of Caesarea, an indefatigable compiler of historical 
data, who had access to many original documents that 
have since been lost, and who wrote in the first half of 
the fourth century both before and after the Council 
of Nicea (325). 

There are some fragments of early uncanonical gospels 
that are interesting by way of comparison with the synop- 
tic accounts—notably the Gospel according to the 


XXIV INTRODUCTION 


Hebrews and the Gospel of Peter, probably from the 
early part of the second century. Besides these there 
are many apocryphal gospel stories which have no claim 
to serious consideration as historical sources. 

The Catacombs, or great underground cemeteries at 
Rome with about 400 miles of galleries and many relics, 
symbolic pictures, and inscriptions, bear witness to the 
life and faith of a community that accepted our gospel 
narratives. ‘These tombs seem to have been used by 
the early Christians not only for the purpose of burial 
of their dead but also in times of persecution as places 
of refuge and worship. While the largest number belong 
to the third century and the early part of the fourth, 
several of them date from the latter part of the first 
century and a considerable number from the second. 
Among the mural decorations, some of which date from 
the second century, have been found besides such symbols 
as the Vine, the Good Shepherd, the Sheep, the Fish, etc., 
pictures illustrating such events as the Visit of the Wise 
Men, the Healing of the Paralytic, the Feeding of the Five 
Thousand, and the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. 

Five non-Christian writers, one Jewish and four 
Roman, during the century from 70 A.D to 170 A.D. make 
brief incidental allusions to Jesus or the early Christians. 
They are Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, and 
Lucian. Besides these the Mishna, the Jewish record 
of traditional law, contains many references to Jesus 
without mentioning his name, using such epithets as 
“that man,” “‘the Nazarene,” ‘‘the one hanged,” “the 
fool,” ‘‘the son of the stake.” 

Josephus’ reference is in his record of the death of 
James whom he differentiates as “the brother of Jesus, 


INTRODUCTION XXV 


the so-called Messiah.” ‘This was written about 75 A.D. 
Suetonius writing about 120 A.D. says that Emperor 
Claudius ‘‘expelled the Jews from Rome because they 
were constantly raising a tumult at the instigation of 
Chrestus.”’ There was a confusion of the names Chrestus 
and Christus among the Romans at that time. Suetonius 
also says in another connection that “the Christians, ad- 
herents of a new and magical superstition, were severely 
punished.” Lucian the satirist about 170 refers to the 
founder of the Christian cult as ‘‘a man who had been 
fixed to a stake in Palestine and who was still worshiped 
for having introduced a new code of morals in life.” 
He further says that this man persuaded his followers 
that they were brothers and that they would live forever. 
Pliny the Younger about 112 A.D. wrote to the 
Emperor Trajan asking for instruction as to how to deal 
with the Christians in his province of Bithynia. He 
says he had gathered from witnesses that 
The sum of their guilt was to assemble on a fixed day before day- 
break and sing responsively hymns to Christ as to a god and to 
bind themselves with an oath not to enter into any wickedness 
or commit thefts, robberies or adulteries or to falsify their work 
or to repudiate trusts committed to them. When these things 


were ended it was their custom to depart and on coming together 
again to take food, men and women together, yet innocently. 


The most important of all these non-Christian refer- 
ences is that of the Roman historian Tacitus, who in his 
Annals, written before 115 A.D., says: 


In order to suppress the rumor [that he himself had set fire 
to Rome] Nero falsely accused and punished with acute torture 
persons who, already hated for their shameful deeds, were com- 
monly called Christians. The founder of that name, Christus, 
had been put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate in the 


XXV1 INTRODUCTION 


reign of Tiberius; but the deadly superstition though suppressed 
for a time broke out again not only throughout Judea where the 
evil had its origin but also through the City [Rome] whither all 
things horrible and vile from all quarters flow and are encouraged; 
accordingly first those were arrested who confessed; then on 
their information a great multitude was convicted not so much 
of the crime of incendiarism as of hatred of the human race. 


Meager as is the testimony of these non-Christian 
writers, it is sufficient to establish several leading facts, 
namely, that the founder of Christianity whose name 
was Jesus, and who was called the Christ lived in Judea 
during the reign of Tiberius, that he was condemned to 
death and crucified by the Roman procurator, Pontius 
Pilate, and that his influence was such that his followers 
gave up their lives for his cause. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. Burton and Mathews, The Life of Christ, pp. 17-25. 

. Stevens, The Teaching of Jesus, pp. 19-32. 

. Burton, A Short Introduction to the Gospels, pp. 8-20, 30-41, 
52-63, 94-98, 128-37. 

. Case, The Historicity of Jesus, pp. 238-70. 

. Kent, The Life and Teachings of Jesus, pp. 1-33. 

. Kent, The Work and Teachings of the Apostles, pp. 2-8. 

. Bennett and Adeney, Biblical Introduction, pp. 277-467. 

. Gilbert, Jesus, pp. 3-84. 

. Bartlet, The Apostolic Age, pp. xviii—xxiii. 


W NH & 


Oo ons An f 


GEA PE Raed 


THE GENERAL FIELD 


THE ROMAN-GRECIAN WORLD 


. Necessity for This Study 
Mark '0:14—-20; )-7: 1-103) 12; 153147437) Mattz 2: 1-0; 
Pare. 3-S5n2 Tit UKO 5 1 3.2 
2. Universal Empire 
Luke 2:1, 2; 23:38; Acts 1:8; 2:5-11; I Pet. 1:1; Horace 
Ep. ii. 1. 156, 157; Plutarch Miscellanies (Goodwin’s ed.) 
i. 249 
3. Means of Communication 
MCS IL t0s013-4—-0.711 3, 1A) 10, 0—52> IOnls 213 320 Ik 7s 
27, 28 
4. Political and Social Conditions 
Markers (iy Matti2°10-23;. 27:053. ACtS 1357; 21031—-A03 
DAO SOG TT Tl £30k} ROMAIGsI=7 
5. Religion and Morality 
Acts 17:16-34; Rom. 1:18-32; I Cor. 2:6-10; 8:1~-13; 
Phils 31030 Eph.t5< 3238 Colvr- 26527 


a! 


I. NECESSITY FOR THIS STUDY 


In order to understand the significance of any great 
historical movement, one must have some idea of the 
conditions under which it originated, the state of the 
world at the time, and the thoughts and aspirations of 
men. This is especially true when the time is two 
thousand years removed from ours and the customs and 
ideas of men consequently so unfamiliar. This back- 
ground or setting is not given in the New Testament. 
It is taken for granted. The writers wrote for the people 
of their own time and left much to be understood. We 
must reconstruct the background and supply the mind- 
content of the writers and of those to whom they wrote, if 


2 


2 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


we would understand their motives and even become ade- 
quately acquainted with the historical facts they discuss. 

This necessity of reconstructing the background may 
be illustrated by the case of receiving a letter from a 
friend at the present time. If you know him well and 
know the place from which he writes and its people, 
there may be many allusions and even categorical state- 
ments which you understand easily but which to another 
who is unacquainted with your friend and the place from 
which he writes are utterly unintelligible. You can 
“read between the lines” because there is a common 
mind-content between you and your friend which is 
unknown to others. In the case of an ancient writer 
like Paul this must be supplied. We must become 
acquainted with his mind-content and with that of the 
persons he addresses and have some idea of the customs, 
beliefs, characteristics, and conditions of the age in 
which he wrote. Hence arises the necessity for a brief 
study of the world out of which Christianity arose. 

In the case of Christianity this study is that of a 
threefold world, for while its founder was a Hebrew and 
spoke Aramaic, he was crucified by Roman soldiers, the 
inscription on the Cross was reported to have been 
written in Hebrew (Aramaic), Greek, and Latin, and the 
story of his life was written in Greek. His greatest 
follower was a Jew but spoke and wrote Greek, was a 
Roman citizen, and his field of operations was the 
Roman Empire. 


2. UNIVERSAL EMPIRE 


In Luke’s story of the birth of Jesus we read: ‘‘There 
went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the 


a 


THE GENERAL FIELD 3 


world should be taxed.” This text suggests the day of 
universal empire. The task of uniting the multiplied 
discordant nationalities of the ancient world, grouped 
for the most part around the shores of the Mediterranean 
Sea, was begun by Alexander the Great (334-323 B.C.), 
who carried the advanced civilization and culture of the 
Greeks with him into Asia and Africa, thus mingling 
Eastern and Western civilizations and opening the way 
for intercommunication through all parts of the historic 
world of his day. The wonderful vitality and aggres- 
siveness of the Greek language and culture were more 
searching and permanent than Alexander’s military 
conquests. This Greek language and culture as modi- 
fied by contact with so many and diverse nationalities 
has been called ‘‘Hellenistic’’ in distinction from the 
Classic Greek language and culture known as Hellenic. 
Alexander did not aim simply at political conquest. 
His ambition was to establish a permanent world-empire 
by fusing all nationalities into one. The marvelous 
success of his brief decade of operations is seen from the 
persistence of the Hellenistic language and culture and 
the consequent ease of intercourse between the differ- 
ent parts of his hastily constructed world-empire long 
after its political disruption, in fact through almost three 
centuries of the rule of Alexander’s successors (the Diado- 
chi) and their descendants (the Epigoni) until the process 
of world-unification was taken up again by Rome in 
the conquest of Macedonia and Greece in 146, Syria in 
64, and Egypt in 30B.c. Even then, when all Hellenistic 
political domination had disappeared, the Greek language 
and culture made conquest of the conquerors, and pre- 
vailed over the Latin civilization of Rome so that the 


4 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


world-culture in the midst of which Christianity took 
its rise was Hellenistic rather than Roman. 


When Greece was captive led, her captor fierce 
She tamed, and brought her arts to rustic Rome. 


The Greeks did not try to obliterate the national char- 
acteristics of the conquered peoples, whether political, 
social, or religious; they absorbed or assimilated them, 
and their own civilization was modified and broadened 
and made cosmopolitan by the process. 

At the time of the birth of Jesus, the political control 
of the world-empire of the Greeks had passed to the 
Romans, and about twenty-five years before (31 B.C.) 
Rome had acquired the symbol of organic unity in the 
person of the great Emperor Octavius Augustus, who by 
his overthrow of Antony in the battle of Actium had 
brought to an end fourteen years of bloody civil strife. 
Thus was inaugurated a period of unexampled peace 
and prosperity which continued during the whole of his 
long reign (31 B.c.-14 A.D.); and the stable government 
of Rome thus established remained throughout the 
reigns of the early emperors, from Augustus’ successor, 
Tiberius (14-37), to Marcus Aurelius (161-80). Accord- 
ing to Plutarch, when the famous sigh of Alexander over 
the fact that there were no more worlds to conquer was 
mentioned in Augustus’ presence, he expressed surprise 
that the work of setting a world in order was not regarded 
as a greater task than making a world-conquest. At 
any rate, this seems to have been the worthy task to 
which he applied his great genius, and during his reign 
the Romans turned their energies from conquest to 
organization and unification. 


THE GENERAL FIELD 5 


The Empire now embraced all the known world, from 
the borders of India to the Pillars of Hercules, and from 
the North Sea to the first cataract of the Nile—the region 
of the Euphrates in the east, Egypt, and all Northern 
Africa in the south, all Western Europe from Spain and 
Britain to the German provinces. The work of world- 
unification begun by Alexander was thus carried on by 
Augustus with much better opportunities for success. 
The Roman Empire became the “melting pot” in which 
were fused all the discordant nationalities of antiquity 
into a political unit that was Roman and a civilization 
that was Greek or rather the modified broadened, cosmo- 
politan Greek known as Hellenistic. 


3. MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 


The ease with which this civilization permeated the 
world was caused by the stable government and means 
of communication established by the strong hand of 
Rome. ‘The sea was cleared of pirates for the first time 
in history. The famous Roman roads (still existing and 
forming the foundations of the best modern roads of 
Europe), constructed in this period in such a manner as 
to connect all the provinces, made communication easier 
than ever before, and were one of the chief unifying 
factors, for ‘‘all roads led to Rome.” Good bridges 
were built where needed, with walls and castles to guard 
them, and there were inns at regular intervals where 
one could change horses. 

These conveniences were primarily for the imperial 
troops, but were used by the people of all nationalities 
traveling for business or pleasure—merchants and arti- 
sans traveling between Alexandria, Rome, Corinth, 


6 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Ephesus, Tarsus, Antioch, and other great centers look- 
ing for work or trade; Roman officials and soldiers and 
recruits from all countries to join the imperial army; 
university students coming from large cities of the 
Empire to Athens, Alexandria, and Tarsus; travelers 
for pleasure just as at the present time; wealthy 
Romans seeking health at famous baths and springs or 
going away for the heated term to cooler climates or to 
the Olympic Games. In fact, travel was as general as 
now, and the first century, in this respect, much like the 
twentieth. 

Perhaps the greatest factor in this unifying process 
was the Greek language. It was carried over the historic 
world of that day by the conquests of Alexander, and 
because of its natural vitality and high degree of develop- 
ment, it prevailed over all tongues with which it came 
in contact, and became the common language of com- 
merce, culture, and society. It was not displaced by 
Latin under Roman domination. In fact, wherever the 
two languages came into contact, Greek prevailed over 
Latin as the language of culture and commerce. While 
Latin was used by the soldiers and in the law courts, 
this common or Hellenistic Greek was the popular 
language of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Even at 
Rome it was necessary to speak Greek for all who desired 
to be considered intellectual and even well-equipped for 
business. 

Aelius Aristides, the rhetorician, writing about the 
middle of the second century A.D., says of the Greeks: 

They celebrate a far greater triumph than that on the field 


of Marathon in the recognition of their language. All states and 
all races of men have yielded to the spread of our speech and to 


THE GENERAL FIELD 7 


our way of life. It does not stop at the Pillars of Hercules and 
neither the Lycian desert nor the Bosporean Strait have set a 
limit to it; but as if by Divine Providence an ardent desire for 
our wisdom and civilization has seized upon all the world. Our 
language is now recognized as the common one and through it 
the whole earth is become intelligible in the same utterance. 

The peoples did not, however, give up their native 
tongues entirely. They were bilingual, as is the case 
in Wales and parts of Canada. The native tongue was 
spoken at home, but on the streets and in business and 
travel Greek was used. 


4. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 


The Romans did not interfere with a conquered 
people’s customs and institutions further than was 
necessary for good administration. Their policy was 
in many respects similar to that of Britain toward India 
or South Africa. ‘They were satisfied if the authority of 
the Empire was recognized, and the tribute promptly 
paid. The Roman administration affected very little 
the social and religious conditions of the provinces. 
They were under Roman governors (proconsuls, pro- 
praetors, procurators) or vassal kings, and owed political 
allegiance to Rome, but no attempt was made to change 
their customs or religion. In Judea, for example, full 
religious liberty was enjoyed, and the sanctity of the 
Temple was guaranteed. The native courts or Sanhedrin 
had the ordinary jurisdiction, and could make arrests 
and try and condemn to any punishment except death. 

There were garrisons of Roman soldiers at principal 
points to maintain order and enforce good government 
in the province. Taxes and customs were collected, but 
a large part of the money was spent in the province on 


8 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


public improvements. ‘These imposts were “farmed,” 
and naturally the collectors called “publicans” in the 
New Testament were hated. On the whole, however, 
for that age the Roman government was good, and a 
spirit of loyalty to the Empire was general. ‘Those who 
were fortunate enough to be citizens were proud of the 
fact, for, in that day, “‘to be a Roman was to be a king.” 
Paul, when writing to the Romans, could say that ‘‘the 
powers that be are ordained of God” and ‘‘rulers are 
not a terror to good works but to evil.” | 

A wholesome fear of Roman power was a great influ- 
ence in maintaining good order, and Paul says Rome 
“bears not the sword in vain.” It is true that the Jews 
resented very grievously the imposition of taxes, but 
there were many who appreciated the stable government 
of Rome, and the prosperous classes generally within the 
Empire were ready to hail the emperor as a savior and 
even as a god. 

The conditions of life in the Roman Empire were not 
so different from ours as is commonly supposed. As has 
been indicated, the people of various parts of the Empire 
mingled freely together, even more freely than at the 
present time, and there was a common world-view and 
commercial enterprise that compares favorably with 
ours. We get some very interesting glimpses into the 
life of this period by means of the abundant material 
furnished by the recently discovered papyri. Here are 
preserved letters and other common documents such as 
wills and contracts depicting everyday life in a very 
realistic fashion—family relationships, travel, soldiers 
in camps writing home—all phases of life remarkably 
similar to those of the present day. 





THE GENERAL FIELD 9 


§. RELIGION AND MORALITY 


The Graeco-Roman world was by no means without 
religion. When Paul visited Athens he found the 
people “‘uncommonly religious.” The cities were full 
of temples, shrines, and objects of worship, and even in 
the fields and forests were to be found sanctuaries of 
deities. Every significant period in the life of the indi- 
vidual and of the state was inaugurated with religious 
ceremonies. 

1. The most primitive form of religion was the nation- 
alistic. Each tribe had its own god who was concerned 
not with the individual but the general welfare—the 
founding of cities, making war, the food supply, etc. 
These religions were polytheistic, there being a distinct 
god for every national activity. When the world was 
made a political unit under Roman rule, the cult of 
the emperor was added to the old national religions. 
This was Rome’s contribution to religion. It was a 
purely political or state religion, intended not to dis- 
place local religions nor compel unity of religious doctrine 
but to strengthen the political unity and authority of 
the Empire by means of a definite symbol of loyalty. 
The ignorant took this cult seriously, of course. The 
intelligent classes undoubtedly smiled at the religious 
phase of emperor-worship, and regarded it simply as 
civil homage. 

In the Graeco-Roman world at the beginning of 
Christianity, polytheism was in a state of decay. It was 
the religion of the childhood of the race. It did not meet 
men’s deep and vital spiritual needs. It was concerned 
only with the material things of life—food, health, safety. 
-~ When men sought deliverance from sorrow, sin, and 


Ke) THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


death, and hope for a life beyond, there came no answer. 
With the common people polytheism degenerated into 
gross superstition, and with the educated classes it became 
an object of ridicule. ‘The priests sought in vain to stem 
the tide of discontent which resulted in empty temples 
and impoverished shrines. These religions had no 
message for the individual heart, and when collectivism 
gave way to individualism, there was a religious chaos 
which led to fatalism and weariness of life. 
On that hard pagan world disgust 
And secret loathing fell; 
Deep weariness and sated lust 
Made human life a hell. 

As invariably happens, and as well illustrated in 
modern times by the French Revolution, morality broke 
down with religion. Gluttony, divorce, and unbridled 
licentiousness were common. Paul’s graphic picture of 
the gross immorality of the Graeco-Roman Empire in 
the first chapter of his Letter to the Romans needs no 
commentary. We are glad to pass over the disgusting 
details. Slavery increased the immoral conditions as 
always by fostering idleness; and the slaves pandered 
often willingly to the lust of their owners. All work was 
done by slave labor. The theater, at first given to the 
performance of grave tragedy teaching life-lessons of 
virtue, fortitude, and humility, was now given over to 
the portrayal of indecency and vice. In fact, the words 
of Paul are particularly appropriate applied to the 
society people of that day when he said that ‘‘their God 
was their appetite and their glory was in their shame.” 

However, religion and morality were not dead. 
There was a great deal of popular preaching and protest 


THE GENERAL FIELD II 


against evil conditions. One class of preachers came 
from above and appealed especially to the intellectual, an- 
other from below and appealed especially to the com- 
mon people. 

2. The philosophers were the professed seekers after 
truth. They helped to break down the old polytheistic 
faiths by teaching men to think and reason. The two 
leading systems of philosophy were Epicureanism and 
Stoicism. Epicureanism was chiefly notable for its 
criticism of the older ideas. It was frankly materialistic 
and aimed to free men from superstitious fear by explain- 
ing natural phenomena on purely physical grounds. 
While not denying the existence of gods, it taught that 
if such beings existed they could have no power over 
men and would not be interested in them. There was 
no such thing as fate, and no need to fear the future as 
death was the end of all. It taught that the chief good 
was pleasure, not the pleasure of the moment but the 
enjoyment of tranquility and happiness brought about 
by living the right kind of life. 

Stoicism, a highly ethical, monotheistic idealism, 
taught that the highest good was virtue, and that man 
should ‘‘abstain and endure” and live a virtuous life. 
In so doing he carries out the divine will, which is the 
supreme task of life. Logos or Divine Reason unites 
man to God, and all men partake of the nature of God 
in so far as the Logos enters into them and they follow 
its guidance. Stoicism had many points of similarity 
to Christianity. If one may judge from their writings, 
its adherents, such as Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus 
Aurelius, were “not far from the Kingdom of God.” 

But philosophy also failed to meet the needs of ordinary 


ia THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


men. It was a religion for strong men, while ordinary 
mortals needed a religion of help and hope. Stoicism 
taught man to rely on himself, to be calm, self-possessed 
and self-sufficient and unmoved by human suffering. 

3. It was this individuai heart-cry of the common 
people which the mystery religions coming from the East 
sought to answer. Precise teachings and details of the 
rituals and ceremonial observances of these cults are 
shrouded in obscurity for several reasons. The classic 
writers give them scant attention because they despised 
them as religions of the lower classes, the contemporary 
Christian writers cannot be depended on to give them 
unbiased notice because they hated them as heathen 
religions, and the rites were not well known outside of 
the cults themselves because the initiates were pledged 
to secrecy. 

There are, however, several characteristics common 
to all these religions which may be stated with certainty. 
They were founded on a story (mystery) of a god’s life, 
death, and coming to life again. They were not national 
but individual and universal. The initiates founded 
societies or brotherhoods. There were sacred meals, 
ablutions, and solemn rites performed in retreat by the 
initiated with the object of bringing the worshiper into 
a state of enthusiasm or ecstasy in which he had com- 
munion with the god. ‘The central idea of all these cults 
was redemption, deliverance from death, and the hope of 
a glorious immortality by means of union with the god. 

Brief mention of the best known of the mystery 
religions will serve to illustrate their general character. 

a) The Eleusinian mysteries of Greece centered in 
the worship of Demeter or Mother-Earth, the source of 


; 
J 
4 





THE GENERAL F TELD 13 


life in nature whose sorrow at the carrying-off of her 
daughter Persephone into the lower world caused all 
nature to die, and whose joy at her restoration to the 
upper world for the summer brought life again upon the 
earth. 

b) In the worship of Dionysus, the Greek god of agri- 
culture and especially of the vine, union with the god 
was secured when the worshiper, under the influence of 
wine, experienced elation and divine infilling. Realistic 
participation in the life of the deity seems to have been 
attained by drinking the blood and eating the flesh of 
an animal (at first probably a human being) in which the 
god was supposed to be incarnated. The fact that the 
victim was devoured in great haste in order to prevent 
the escape of the divinity gave the ceremony a frenzied 
character. 

c) Another very popular mystery religion was the 
Phrygian cult of Cybele-Attis. Cybele, a mother- 
goddess, like Demeter, was the source of life, and Attis 
was the god who, representing nature, died in winter 
and was restored to life in summer. 

d) In the Mithra mysteries from Persia, Mithra was 
represented as being born out of a rock and becoming 
like the Greek Prometheus, the champion of man against 
the powers of darkness. He was identified with the 
sun, and so the cult aimed to include all other religions. 

e) In the cult of Isis and Osiris (or Serapis) from 
Egypt, Osiris was a beneficent Egyptian king who 
suffered a violent death in his struggle against the forces 
of evil, represented by Typhon, and Isis was his wife, who 
after cruel sufferings and wanderings, the remembrance 
of which made her afterward sympathetic with human 


14 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


suffering, found the body and had it embalmed. Osiris 
was deified and became the ruler of the nether world and 
so the arbiter of man’s destiny. 

The mystery religions had their origin in the worship 
of nature. Resurrection and immortality were suggested 
by the eternal mystery of life and death and coming to 
life again as seen in day and night, the seasons, and the 
decay and revivification of vegetation. At first crude 
and sometimes grossly immoral, they became refined and 
purified by the growing moral sense of men, and the 
worshiper had to purify himself in order to enjoy com- 
munion with the god. This was done by penance and 
ablution, a kind of spiritual disinfection. 

These religions appealed to the emotions and inspired 
hope of immortality. The rites were interesting and 
enthraling and raised the worshiper into a higher emo- 
tional state in which he felt himself united with the divine. 
As the deity suffered and died and rose again to life and 
power, so he could sympathize with suffering and give 
comfort in affliction and hope in death of a blessed im- 
mortality. ‘Thus the mystery religions while not affect- 
ing Christianity directly, because the Christians feared 
and hated them as pagan, nevertheless prepared the peo- 
ple for the reception of Christianity, which seemed so like 
them in many respects and yet was infinitely superior in 
its absolute purity, sanity, and historical attestation, and 
especially in meeting the final problem not of saving 
men from sorrow and death only but of saving them 
from sin by the development of that character which 
makes them sons of God. 


Oo 


00 ONT AN f& W 


HoH 
H 


THE GENERAL FIELD 15 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. Angus, Environment of Early Christianity, pp. 30-139, 164-226. 
. Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity, pp. 48-77, 195-238, 


284-330. 


. Breasted, Ancient Times, pp. 425-83, 549-665. 

. Robinson, Life of Paul, pp. 5-24. 

. Kent, The Work and Teachings of the Apostles, pp. 9-20. 

. McGiffert, The Apostolic Age, pp. 151-57. 

; Gilbert, Jesus, pp. 87-114. 

. Bartlet, The Apostolic Age, pp. xxiv-xxx. 

. Dill, Roman Society, pp. 289-383. 

. Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery Religions, pp. 68-114. 

. Milligan, Greek Papyri, Nos. 11, 12, 16, 17, 36, 37, 38, 42, 52. 


CHAPTER II 


THE LOCAL FIELD 


THE JEWISH WORLD 


1. Palestine and Its People 
Gen. 11:31; 12:1-9; 15:18-21; Exod. 3:8; Deut. 8:7-9; 
I Kings 4:21; Luke 3:1; Acts 10:39; Heb. 11:9 

2. Political Conditions 
Num iirr $20, 05075 )) Mark 3 s65\6) 16-283") Sra pening nas 
Tot renMattso:y 10, 1022s LUKe sina: torts ts an ae 
202923) 22°O-L2) 115s \ACtS Al I=21, 275) 5327 ckOsuLiooos 
Phil. 4:22 ; 

3. Judaism 
Deut. 28; Mic. 6:6-8; Mark 7:1-15; Matt. 3:7-9; 23; 
Acts 4:1-3;. Rom: 4:11-13; 921-5, 30-33; 1031-3} 
TIT settle. 7 otOs20 

4. The Messianic Hope 
Gen! 49:10; Jsaz.9:6;\ Jer. 23:'5; Dan. 23 34,' 35:44 nage 
7°13.14392253 Mic. 5:2;' Zech) o:9;/ Marki14 61608 
Matt. 221-73 21553) (253303) 1265043727; t1y) ume: peas 
S0TTs ee Toons JOON L2nn2 

5. The Dispersion 
Jers 24:93) John 922353) Actsi2 scart: Jr! 10). 20; ot aueeurs. 
153, 19: 12-17; 19:8, 9, 33 

6. “The Fulness of Time” 
Luke 3:15; Gal. 4:4 


I. PALESTINE AND ITS PEOPLE 


Although Christianity became a part of the complex 
life of the Graeco-Roman world, it had its origin in the 
little strip of land on the eastern shore of the Mediter- 
ranean known as Palestine, whose inhabitants were called 
Jews. Its founder was a Jew and the early leaders of the 
movement, Peter, James, John, and especially Paul, 
were Jews. In this country and its people, therefore, we 
are particularly interested when studying the background 


16 





THE LOCAL FIELD 17 


of Christianity. It was a small country not more than 
160 miles from north to south and 70 from east to west, 
bounded on the north and northeast by Phoenicia and 
Syria, on the south and southeast by Arabia, and on the 
west by the Mediterranean Sea. 

The surface of Palestine is very highly diversified. 
In the north rises a high range of mountains called 
Lebanon from which two parallel chains run south into 
Galilee in the center of the country and unite into a 
ridge of hills which continues south through Samaria 
and Judea. From the west of these hills there is a 
gradual slope to the Mediterranean, and from the east 
a rapid descent to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. 
On the east side of the Jordan there is a similar range of 
hills running from north to south. Between the hills 
are rich valleys and plains. Every variety of landscape 
is thus presented and in consequence there are many 
varieties of vegetation and opportunities for all kinds of 
occupations. The most abundant crops were grapes 
and figs, and the two chief occupations besides agri- 
culture were fishing and sheep-raising because of the 
many streams and lakes and the rich pasture on the 
innumerable hillsides. It was in truth 
A land flowing with milk and honey .. . . a good land, a land 
of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys 
and hills; a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and 
pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey; a land wherein 
thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any- 
thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills 
thou mayest dig copper. 

In its geographical position Palestine was practically 
the center of the ancient civilized world. While enjoy- 
ing, because of its natural boundaries, the Lebanon 


18 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Mountains, the Syrian and Arabian deserts, and the 
Mediterranean, such isolation as to give it a high degree 
of national individuality, it was surrounded by the great- 
est people of antiquity, the Assyrians and Babylonians 
to the east, and the Phoenicians and Egyptians on the 
north and south. The commercial and military competi- 
tion of these nations made Palestine an international 
theater of action. Later, when the world-empire of 
Alexander was divided among his generals, the two great- 
est rivals, Egypt and Syria, continually crossed and 
recrossed this little country in mutual invasion and 
retreat. It might in consequence well be called the 
Belgium of the ancient world. 

The people claimed descent from the twelve sons of 
Jacob whose descendants were organized into twelve 
tribes, but only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin 
returned from the Babylonian Captivity, and their 
descendants were called Jews from the larger tribe. 
During their captivity they lost the ancient Hebrew 
language and learned the cognate Semitic tongue of 
their captors. This written in Hebrew letters and called 
Aramaic was the common language in the time of the 
beginning of Christianity, although, as was the case in 
other parts of the empire, the people were largely bilingual 
and the language of commerce was Greek. Hebrew 
became a classical language used only by the learned and 
in religious ceremony. It had to be translated in order 
to be understood by the common people. 


2. POLITICAL CONDITIONS 


In order to understand political conditions in Palestine 
at this time, it is necessary to glance briefly at the history 


THE LOCAL FIELD 19 


of the country from the beginning of the Hellenistic 
period or the time of Alexander the Great (336-323 B.c.). 
Palestine had been included in Alexander’s conquests 
and at his death when his empire was divided into four 
parts under the rule of his generals (the Diadochi), this 
little country was left between the upper and nether 
millstones of Syria and Egypt. It was traversed by 
armies of each as they marched to attack the other, and 
subject to the tyranny of each in turn, according to the 
fickle fortune of war, until in 198 B.c. it became perma- 
nently a dependency of Syria under Antiochus the Great. 

The local government still remained a kind of the- 
ocracy in which there was no distinction between civil 
and religious law or, as we might say, church and state. 
The chief ruler was the high priest, who was assisted by 
a kind of senate called the Sanhedrin, consisting of about 
seventy priests and elders or heads of families, which 
traced its origin back to the time of Moses, who appointed 
seventy elders of the people to assist him. This high 
council, consisting, at the beginning of the Christian Era, 
of seventy-one pure Hebrews—chief priests, scribes, and 
elders—met in Jerusalem in a sort of senate, cabinet, 
and supreme court combined. There were also similar 
bodies in the smaller towns consisting of seven and in 

larger towns of twenty-three members. 

| This combination of religion and government led to 
serious consequences in the history of the little nation. 
The Syrian rulers noticed that the religious element of 
the population called the Chasidim or “‘the pious” were 
also the patriots who were most devoted to their country 
and opposed to foreign domination, and that the rich 
and prosperous who had given up the strict worship of 


20 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


their fathers and adopted Hellenistic customs were 
contented with Syrian rule. Antiochus Epiphanes (175- 
164 B.C.) while engaged in war with Egypt came to the 
conclusion that the pious were not loyal to him but were 
friendly to Egypt. He saw that those who had given 
up their religion were loyal to Syria, so he decided that 
the way to make them al! loyal was to compel them all 
to give up the Law of Moses. He sent his soldiers to 
enforce this design. The pious resisted and took refuge 
in the mountains. The Temple was desecrated and a 
hog sacrificed to Zeus on the altar of burnt offering. 

It was not, however, an easy task to crush out the 
Jewish religion, and many resisted to the death. When 
the Syrian officer came to a little town called Modein 
to compel the people to sacrifice to heathen gods, an 
old priest called Mattathias killed him, fled to the moun- 
tains with his sons, and raised the standard of revolt. 
The pious flocked to his standard, and he carried on war 
against the Syrians vigorously and successfully. He 
died in a few months, but his son Judas (165-161 B.c.) 
took his place, defeated the Syrians, recovered Jerusalem, 
and reconsecrated the Temple. Judas was surnamed 
Maccabaeus and his descendants were called Maccabeans. 

The pious now felt that with the restoration of their 
religion by the reconsecration of the Temple their object 
was accomplished, and, being naturally pacifists, they laid 
down their arms and deserted Judas. ‘Then the Syrians 
came back at him and before he could rally a sufficient 
force he was killed. However, the war was carried on 
by his brothers Jonathan (161-143 B.c.) and Simon 
(143-135 B.C.) until the Syrian yoke was completely 
shaken off and Judea became independent (141 B.c.). 


ee ee eee = a 


THE LOCAL FIELD 21 


The people in gratitude voted the high priesthood to 
the Maccabean family permanently. It naturally fol- 
lowed as time went on that they became autocratic and 
assumed the title of king (109 B.c.). Soon, too, they 
began to form foreign alliances after the custom of other 
monarchs and so offended the pious, who now came to be 
called Pharisees, a name meaning “‘Separatists,”’ because 
they held aloof from everything defiling or non-Jewish, 
and so from foreign alliances. The kings changed their 
favor to the Sadducees, the aristocratic Hellenistic party, 
and civil war ensued which lasted over half a century 
until two brothers, one a Pharisee and the other a Sad- 
ducee, became rival claimants of the throne, and each 
appealed to Rome for aid. 

As was her custom, Rome came in and settled the 
matter in favor of one claimant (Hyrcanus IT), but made 
the little country a part of her Empire. The title of king 
was taken away and the ruler called only ‘‘high priest.” 
Jerusalem was captured by Pompey.in 63 B.c. Hyrcanus: ~ 
proved a weak ruler and the real power fell into the hands 
of a strong politician called Antipater, a native of Idumea 
in the south of Judea and so not a real Jew but an 
Edomite or descendant of Esau. When Hyrcanus was 
carried away into captivity by the Parthians, who 
had been invited in by his rival to help him secure the 
throne, Antipater’s son Herod, by winning the Roman 
government to his side, had himself appointed king of 
Judea but of course subject to Rome. 

This Herod, called the Great, reigned from 37 to 
48.c. and proved a strong but unscrupulous ruler. To 
please the people and to make his position more secure, 
he married a Maccabean princess called Mariamne, and 


22 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


rebuilt the Temple with great magnificence. He main- 
tained peace and order and was on the whole a good 
ruler for that time, but he was thoroughly hated by the 
people who were kept in submission only by fear. He 
put to death all whom he thought dangerous as rivals for 
the royal power, including even his uncle and three sons 
and his own wife and her mother and brother. At his 
death his kingdom, according to his will with the sanc- 
tion of Rome, was divided among his three sons, 
Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip. 

To Archelaus was given Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, 
with the title of ethnarch, which he held until 6 A.D., 
when he was deposed and Judea made a Roman province 
under procurators. Of these the best known was the 
stubborn, revengeful, corrupt, and cruel Pontius Pilate 
(26-36 A.D.), who was the governor during Jesus’ public 
life. Herod Antipas was made tetrarch of Galilee and 
Perea (4 B.C.—39 A.D.). Jesus belonged to his province. 
Jesus’ characterization of him as ‘‘that fox’’ was pecu- 
liarly appropriate. He was crafty, ambitious, and fond 
of display. ‘This was the Herod who beheaded John the 
Baptist because he rebuked him for taking his brother 
Philip’s wife. Herod Philip ruled, also with the title of 
tetrarch, a small territory east of Galilee from 4 to 34 A.D. 
He was a mild and peaceful ruler and well liked by the 
people. ‘These were the political divisions of Palestine 
at the time of the beginning of Christianity. 


3. JUDAISM 


As the founder of Christianity was born and brought 
up as a Jew in the midst of Judaism, the religion of the 
Jews becomes of paramount interest in our study. The 





THE LOCAL FIELD 23 


God of the Jews became the God of the Christians and, 
in fact, at first the Christians regarded themselves as 
loyal Jews and their religion as reformed Judaism. The 
great contribution of the Jews to religion was that of a 
pure monotheism. It is true that the idea of one God 
was developed in Greek philosophy, but in Judaism it 
took a more distinct and unequivocal form, and the one 
God became in the thought of the Jewish prophets a god 
of absolute righteousness who required justice, kindness, 
and humility from hi8 people. 

The distinctive feature of Judaism was the belief 
that, while the God of the Jews was the Creator and Lord 
of all the world, he had chosen the descendants of Abra- 
ham out from all the nations to be a “peculiar people,” 
the object of his greatest solicitude and favor. The 
prophets indeed acknowledged that God would bless all 
men, but held that this blessing would come through 
the Jews. The promise was made to Abraham that he 
and his descendants should become possessed of all the 
nations. The Jews believed that only Abraham’s 
children would receive this divine blessing, or ‘‘salva- 
tion,’”’ as it came to be called, but that all nations might 
become Abraham’s children by adoption and so become 
eligible to this blessing. 

This belief gave the Jews a very high conception of 
their national destiny. When in their position as the 
Belgium of the ancient world they were trampled upon 
now by one tyrant and now by another, their prophets 
encouraged them with the idea that God could not break 
his promise. He would soon come and deliver them with 
a “high hand and uplifted arm,” as he had done before 
in their glorious history, especially in the classic case of 


24 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


their birth as a nation in being delivered from the bond- 
age in Egypt. This was the origin of the famous 
messianic hope, the hope that God, some day in the 
future, more or less distant, either in person as their 
king or through a king (messiah) who should be his 
chosen representative, would deliver them from all 
enemies and establish a perpetual reign of righteousness— 
the Kingdom of God. 

Concurrent with this belief there naturally arose the 
question why God had forsaken his people and delivered 
them over to cruel enemies. In the answer to this ques- 
tion lies the great ethical basis of the Jewish religion, in 
fact, the fundamental conception that distinguished 
Judaism from all other ancient religions. This answer 
was that God’s promise was a covenant in which he had 
agreed to bless them and be their God only on condition 
that they would do nght and serve him as faithful 
children. If they turned away from him and sinned he 
would punish them with national disaster. ‘The prophets 
denounced the sins of the people but continually held 
out the promise of blessed deliverance if they would 
repent and serve God. 

When the Jews returned from their captivity they 
had so thoroughly learned their lesson that never again 
did they turn to idolatry. But in a sense they had 
learned it too well. ‘They came to believe that righteous- 
ness consisted in scrupulous performance of the multi- 
tudinous details of ceremonial rites. These rites had 
their origin in the conception of God as a transcendent 
holy being, far removed from the corrupt gods of the 
other nations, and were designed to raise the people to a 
position of physical and moral purity where they could 





THE LOCAL FIELD 25 


be acceptable to such a holy being. Such emphasis came 
to be laid on the mere ceremonies that the moral side 
was often forgotten, and formalism and mere legalism 
took the place of the religion of the heart. This post- 
exilic legalistic religion might be called the religion of 
the priests as distinguished from the earlier more spirit- 
ual religion of the prophets. 

After the Maccabean revolution the Pharisees became 
the religious leaders of the people. They were extreme 
‘purists’? and ‘believed that the absolute purity de- 
manded of the people by God could only be secured by the 
minute observance, not only of every “jot and tittle” 
of the Levitical code or Law of Moses as it was called, 
but also of all the precepts of the oral traditions which 
had accumulated around it. ‘This scrupulous observance 
led to a change in the conception of the Abrahamic 
covenant. It came to be looked upon as a commercial 
contract where God was bound to pay out rewards in 
proportion to the performance of his supposed legal 
exactions. 

4. THE MESSIANIC HOPE 

The messianic hope, too, now began to take on more 
of an individual character. From the time of the 
Maccabean wars many apocalyptic writings arose, pictur- 
ing the coming blessed age of the overthrow of the 
nation’s enemies and an era of righteousness and glory. 
Formerly the nation only was concerned in the messianic 
blessedness, but now the individual pious Jew began to 
think of his own personal reward, and because of the 
impossibility of enjoying that reward in the present state 
of national misfortune, there arose the desire and hope 
of sharing in the future glory of the nation and a blessed 


26 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


resurrection of the pious in which they would enjoy the 
messianic age when it should come. With this hope 
developed the idea of a judgment in which the wicked 
should be separated from the righteous in order to 
determine who was to participate in the blessedness of 
the messianic age and who should be cast out into 
Gehenna, the pit of abomination. 

The conception of a Messiah apart from God himself 
was not at first a part of the hope. It was the idea of a 
blessed, prosperous Kingdom with perhaps a human 
descendant of David on the throne, and God’s Kingdom 
in the sense that God’s authority would be recognized. 

When the realization of this hope was long delayed, 
and disaster came again and again as in the terrible per- 
secution under Antiochus Epiphanes and a century later 
the galling subjugation to Rome, there were many who 
began to lose faith in natural means of succor and to look 
for a new age of righteousness, directly controlled by di- 
vine power, when all the nations should be ruled by a 
Messiah who should be the representative of God appear- 
ing suddenly, destroying the wicked and setting up his 
Kingdom with spectacular and miraculous demonstra- 
tion. This was the idea of the Kingdom put forth by the 
apocalyptic writers of the Maccabean and Roman peri- 
ods. It is found especially in the Szbylline Oracles, the 
Psalms of Solomon, the Book of Enoch, Josephus, and 
the gospels. The earlier nationalistic idea, however, still 
prevailed, and with some accretions from the apocalyptic 
was the popular conception in the time of Jesus. 

Just before the Christian Era there was a general 
belief that the blessed Kingdom was about to be estab- 
lished. The pious were so punctilious in their observance 


THE LOCAL FIELD 27 


of the law that many thought God could not demand 
more and must now fulfil his promise. In the Assump- 
tion of Moses, written within a few years of the birth of 
Jesus, many signs of the approaching Kingdom are 
enumerated, and Josephus tells of many false messiahs 
who appeared and attracted large numbers of followers. 
“The people were in expectation.” 


5. THE DISPERSION 


The Jews were not limited to Palestine, at the time 
of which we write, any more than at present. In fact, 
there were more Jews outside than inside of Palestine. 
These Jews in other lands were called by the Greek term, 
‘Diaspora,’ and are generally referred to now by the 
English equivalent, ‘‘Dispersion.”’ Large numbers had 
been carried off into captivity in the early days, and later 
many had gone voluntarily into other countries, as is 
always the case with the population of a very small 
country. 

Great numbers of Jews settled in Egypt when Pales- 
tine was subject to that country in the third century 
B.c. and formed a large Jewish colony in Alexandria. 
Philo claims that there were a million Jews in Egypt 
in his time. In the next century when the dominion 
passed to Syria, a large number of Jews settled in Antioch 
and other cities of that country, and after 63 B.c. when 
Palestine became a part of the Roman Empire, the Jews 
found their way to all parts of the Empire in their ca- 
pacity as traders and money-lenders. The earlier Sybilline 
writings of the second century B.c. claimed that ‘‘every 
land and sea was full of Jews.” Strabo said it was hard 
to find a place on earth where there were no Jews, and 


28 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Philo and Josephus say that Jerusalem might be called 
the world’s capital. 

The Jews thus scattered over the Empire often became 
citizens of the cities in which they settled, and many of 
them secured for themselves by purchase or otherwise 
the rights of Roman citizenship. The attitude of the 
Roman government toward them was generally friendly, 
and they were in that day, as now, the most prosperous 
people everywhere. The popular attitude toward them, 
however, seems to have been that of jealousy, hatred, 
and contempt because of their financial prosperity, 
exclusiveness, and open scorn of other religions. 

By their contact with other people, however, the Jews 
of the Dispersion lost much of the narrowness and 
national prejudice of the Jews of Palestine. They 
adopted the Greek language, and, in fact, it became their 
only language. Their sacred books were of necessity 
translated into Greek, and the Greek version or Sep- 
tuagint as it was called became their Bible and only means 
of access to the Mosaic Law. While they remained 
true to the religion and traditions of their ancestry, they 
adopted Greek customs to a large extent and were 
affected by Hellenistic culture. They were called 
‘“‘Hellenists” from the Greek verb, ‘“‘Hellenize’—to 
make Hellenic or Greek. 

While the Temple at Jerusalem, with its 24,000 priests 
and multitude of attendant Levites, remained the center 
of the national religious life of all Jews, and every pious 
Jew, no matter in what part of the Empire he lived, hoped 
to attend at least one Passover in his lifetime, another 
more democratic institution became the real source of 
the religious life of the people everywhere and especially 


THE LOCAL FIELD . 20 


in the Dispersion. The synagogue, or meeting-house, 
originated by necessity during the Babylonian Exile, 
and after their return from captivity it continued and 
became a permanent institution. 

Wherever there were ten Jews in a community, 
usually a synagogue was to be found. The conduct 
of worship in the synagogue in direct contrast to that 
of the Temple was exceedingly simple and democratic. 
It consisted of psalms, prayers, and the reading of the 
Law and the Prophets with sometimes a brief extempore 
address by a visiting rabbi or some visitor of note who 
happened to be present. There was no altar, no image, 
no ritual. The only furniture was a reading desk, a 
box for the sacred books, and a burning candlestick. 

These democratic houses of worship scattered all over 
the Empire had a great influence in the religious life of 
the Greeks, many of whom were attracted by the pure 
monotheism and ethical soundness of Judaism. Those 
who submitted to circumcision and adopted all the Jewish 
ceremonial observances were called proselytes. Many, 
however, accepted the monotheism and moral teachings 
but stopped short of the ceremonial rites, especially 
circumcision. It is these latter who are called ‘‘devout 
persons” and “‘God-fearing” Greeks in the New Testa- 
ment. The Jews were essentially a missionary people. 
Their missionary zeal is well characterized in Jesus’ 
saying that they ‘“‘compassed sea and land to make one 
proselyte.”” This was because of their belief that they 
had the only true religion, and that all men must be sons 
of Abraham, either by birth or by adoption, in order to 
be ‘“‘saved” or eligible to receive the blessings of the 
coming messianic Kingdom. 


30 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


6. ‘‘THE FULNESS OF TIME”’ 


‘When the fulness of time was come God sent forth 
his Son.” How aptly these words of Paul describe 
conditions at the beginning of the Christian Era may be 
seen from the foregoing study of the world out of which 
Christianity arose. It may be desirable to conclude 
with a brief summary of the conditions that prepared 
the way for the spread of Christianity. 

1. The fact that the whole civilized world was a 
political unit under a sovereign who brought about a 
state of peace and order hitherto unknown was a great 
factor in paving the way for Christianity. Christianity 
was destined to become a religion for all nations, and the 
Roman rule broke down the old barriers that divided 
decisively one race from another. The unity of the 
nations under one strong ruler who was regarded as a 
savior and worshiped as a god prepared the minds of 
men for the great conception of universal brotherhood 
under one God, the Father of all mankind. 

2. The excellent means of intercourse between all 
parts of the Empire brought about by the peace and 
order established by Roman prowess and by the great 
Roman roads which made travel easy by land, and the 
destruction of piracy which opened up as never before 
the highways of the great sea, made it possible for the 
pioneer preachers of Christianity to carry their message 
to all men. Perhaps the most important unifying factor 
of all was the general spread of the Hellenistic language 
which, as never before or since, made it possible for these 
pioneer preachers to speak their message at first hand in 
all parts of the world. 


THE LOCAL FIELD 31 


3. A third great factor which prepared the world for 
Christianity might be called “the death of the gods’”— 
the decay of the old national polytheistic religions 
together with the breakdown of morality and the growth 
of individualism and the consequent heart-cry of the 
individual for freedom from sin and sorrow and death. 
It was this longing which the new mystery religions 
sought to satisfy, and in so doing prepared men’s minds 
for a universal religion of redemption from sin and death 
in which God was to be Father of all men and all men 
brothers. 

4. Perhaps the greatest of all these factors was the 
Jewish Diaspora or Dispersion which carried all over the 
world the ideals of pure monotheism and ethical living. 
Attached to every Jewish synagogue were proselytes from 
the native peoples, and these provided the bridge between 
Christianity and paganism and became the earliest gentile 
converts and most enthusiastic and effective preachers of 
the new faith. From these also there spread among 
all nations the influence of the messianic hope which at 
this time had developed into an earnest world-wide 
expectation of the dawn of a new era, a kind of golden 
age when the God of all men would send to them a 
deliverer from sin and death who would establish a 
perpetual and universal reign of righteousness and peace. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


1. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 
PD ml-0; 157-00. 
2. Burton and Mathews, Life of Christ, pp. 9-15. 


3. Angus, The Environment of Early Christianity, pp. 140-63, 
222-20. 


32 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


. Case, Evolution of Early Christianity, pp. 78-122. 

. Stevens, Zhe Teaching of Jesus, pp. 1-18. 

. Burton, A Source Book for the Teaching of Jesus, pp. 18-44. 

. Fairweather, Background of the Gospels, pp. 13-41, 57-63, 
137-53, 180-215. 

. Barton, Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 36-53. 

. Bartlet, Apostolic Age, pp. xxxi—xlvii. 


Ian > 


Oo © 


CHAPTER III 


THE BEGINNING 


JOHN AND THE ADVENT OF JESUS 


1. John the Baptist 
Mark 1:1-8; Matt. 3:1-12; Luke 3:1-20; cf. John 1:19- 
20 

2. Jesus’ Early Life 
Mark 1:93/:3:31-35; 6:3, 4;. Matt. 4:12,.13°. 7: 11,.24-30; 
£2°40°519%831155,.50;, Luke 4:16; (82197305) 117 9° TSG: 
ct) Matt, 2;; Luke''2: Exod, 23: 14-17;) 35: 22)) 253.) Lev, 
¥2:>8;) Weut.0:4-3; 16:16 

3. His Call and Temptation 
Mark 1:9-13; Matt. 3:13-4:11; Luke 3:21—4:13; Ps. 
2:7: 1sa./42>7 

4. His Relationship to John 
Mark 1:14-30; 6:14-39; Matt. 3:13-17; 14:1-12; Luke 
7:18-35; John 4:1-3; cf. John 1: 29-37 

5. His Public Ministry 
Mark 1:16-39; cf. Matt. 4:18-25; 8:14-17; Luke 4:31- 
443 5:I-1I; 11:29, 30 


I. JOHN THE BAPTIST 


Our earliest sources all agree in starting the story of 
the “Beginning of the Good News” with a brief account 
of the career of John the Baptist. He appears just at 
the time of universal expectation of the realization of the 
messianic hope, as indicated at the close of the last 
chapter. Luke, who claims that he investigated all 
the facts connected with the origin of Christianity 
“carefully from the very beginning,” says that John 
began to deliver his message in the fifteenth year 
of Tiberius. We know almost nothing of his early life. 


33 


34 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


From Luke’s narrative we gather that he was born in 
the hill country of Judea of a devout, priestly family. 
He made his public appearance suddenly in the wilder- 
ness of Judea, clad in rough, primitive raiment, with the 
startling announcement that the Kingdom of God was 
coming immediately. He at once attracted attention 
and people came out to hear him “‘from Jerusalem, Judea, 
and beyond Jordan.” 

John was a very striking figure—austere, ascetic, 
clad in rough raiment, with a stern message very similar 
to that of the Old Testament prophets, particularly 
Amos. The chief difference was that the new era was 
“at hand.” The time to which all the old prophets had 
pointed had come. The principal emphasis of John’s 
message was on judgment. It was a clarion call to 
repentance because God was coming to judge the people. 

The Jews welcomed the announcement of the coming 
of the time of judgment, thinking that God was coming to 
judge the other nations and deliver his ancient people. 
For them the “‘rule of God”’ meant the rule of the Jews 
as the conquerors of all other nations. But John soon 
undeceived them. His message of repentance was for 
them. God was coming to judge the Jews. “Produce 
the fruits that answer to your repentance,” he said to 
them, “instead of beginning to say to yourselves, ‘We 
have a father in Abraham.’ I tell you God can raise 
children to Abraham from these stones.”’ The axe was 
“already lying at the root of the trees.’”’ Those not 
bearing good fruit would be “‘cut down and cast into the 
fire.”’ 

John also announced the immediate coming of “‘one 
mightier” than himself, a great judge who would separate 


THE BEGINNING 35 


the bad from the good as chaff from wheat and ‘‘ gather 
the wheat into his granary and burn the chaff with 
unquenchable fire.’ John made no claim for himself. 
When asked by delegates from Jerusalem whether he was 
the Messiah or Elijah he denied being either. He 
evidently thought of himself as merely a preacher of 
righteousness, ‘‘a voice’ calling men to repent. He 
believed that the wonderful new era which had been 
foretold by the prophets was just about to begin, and 
he felt impelled to do what he could to warn his people 
to get ready, to warn them that mere observance of the 
forms of their religion would not prepare them to stand 
before the ‘‘Mightier One” nor save them from 
condemnation. 

Although the burden of John’s message was the 
immediate coming of the age of righteousness, his message 
was not political but ethical. He called for a moral 
reformation, a religion of heart and life, the exercise of 
justice, mercy, honesty, and truth. He gave no intima- 
tion of the character of the new era. He merely pro- 
claimed its coming and the consequent need of prepara- 
tion. That he did not give attention to political affairs 
nor concern himself about the national aspect of the 
coming age is evident from such utterances as that 
addressed to the soldiers when they asked what they 
should do: ‘‘Never extort money, never lay a false 
charge, but be content with your wages.” 

The most spectacular thing about John’s public 
ministry was his use of baptism from which he has always 
been distinguished as “the Baptist”’ or ‘‘the Baptizer.” 
He used the rite as a striking symbol of moral purifica- 
tion because it would be readily so understood by the 


36 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


people. It was in common use in the Levitical law to 
signify ceremonial cleansing from various kinds of physi- 
cal contamination, and it had become a distinctive 
feature of the ceremony of making proselytes from 
heathenism. As John used it of course it would, in the 
eyes of the people, naturally partake of the symbolism of 
both of those kinds of ceremonies but more particularly 
of the latter. 

The striking thing about John’s use of baptism would 
be that he was baptizing Jews instead of heathen. This 
would at once indicate that the Jews needed to be 
cleansed from moral filth before becoming fit for the new 
era which John was heralding. The rite then as used 
by John had a threefold signification: a public confession 
of guilt, the giving up of the old sinful life, and a consecra- 
tion to a new, purer life. John’s words that the people 
should bring forth fruits that answer to repentance 
instead of relying on their Abrahamic descent and the 
consequent Mosaic ceremonialism show that he did not 
regard this rite as of value in itself but used it as a con- 
venient symbol for the confession of sin and consecra- 
tion to a purer life. 

The feature of John’s message that attracted the 
people and advertised him all over Palestine was 
undoubtedly his insistence on the immediate coming of 
the age of righteousness. ‘This together with his spec- 
tacular appearance and bold and fearless denunciation 
of sin and the dramatic ceremony of baptism applied to 
Jewish converts rather than to Gentiles brought crowds 
to him from all directions. The impression he made is 
seen from the testimony of Josephus, the famous con- 
temporary historian: 


THE BEGINNING 37 


He was a good man and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, 
both as justice toward one another and piety toward God, and so 
to come to baptism; for baptism would be acceptable to God, if 
they made use of it, not in order to expiate some sin, but for the 
purity of the body provided that the soul was thoroughly purified 
beforehand by righteousness. 

He aroused the messianic expectation of many people 
to a high pitch of enthusiasm, and made it much easier 
for the “Mightier One” who came after him to secure 
their attention. 


2. JESUS’ EARLY LIFE 


Our earliest sources (Mark and the Logia of Matthew) 
introduced Jesus as one of those who came to hear John 
preach in the Judean wilderness, saying that he ‘‘came 
from Nazareth of Galilee.”” ‘This marks the ‘‘ Beginning 
of the Good News about Jesus.” As in the case of John 
and in fact of most great historical characters, very little 
is known of the founder of Christianity before his 
entrance into public life. There is, of course, a great 
amount of legendary material in non-canonical gospel 
stories, but it is practically worthless because of its ex- 
tremely fanciful not to say fantastic character, and its 
obviously late date. The few glimpses we get into his 
early life come from incidental references in the accounts 
in our sources of his public ministry. 

The fact that Jesus was brought up in Galilee rather 
than in Judea undoubtedly had an influence on his life 
and message. In Galilee there was comparative freedom 
from the narrow, legalizing, and deadening influence of 
the rabbinical schools of the Pharisees. ‘There was not so 
much slavery to the letter and much more openness and 
humanness. ‘The only indication of rabbinical influence 


38 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


in Jesus’ teachings seems to be that of a strong reaction 
against it. Instead of being cumbrous, redundant, and 
veiled, his teaching is simple, direct, and clear. 

Incidental references in our sources give us a few 
interesting glimpses into Jesus’ family and home life. 
That there were five sons, Jesus, James, Joseph, Simon, 
and Judah, and at least two daughters whose names are 
not mentioned, is séen from the objection of the people of 
“his native place’? which, as the context indicates, was 
in Galilee and which is referred to also as ‘Nazareth 
where he was brought up”’: ‘‘Is this not the carpenter the 
son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and 
JudahandSimon? Arenot his sisters settled here among 
us?” The fact that his mother is referred to several times 
in the gospel records of his adult life and that no mention 
is made of his father indicates that his father died early, 
and there is a strong tradition to this effect. 

The reference to Jesus as the carpenter’s son in 
a manner that would indicate that on that account he 
could not be expected to have “wisdom,” and Luke’s 
statement that his mother, after his birth, made the 
offering according to the Levitical law of those ‘‘whose 
means do not suffice for a lamb,” may be confirmatory 
of the tradition that his parents were in comparatively 
humble circumstances. 

The songs of Mary and Zechariah and the words of 
Elizabeth and Simeon, which may have been gathered 
by Luke among the Palestinian hills when he was 
“investigating all things carefully from the very begin- 
ning,” show the atmosphere in which Jesus and his 
neighbors lived, one of simple piety and confident 
expectation of the messianic deliverance. In Jesus’ 


THE BEGINNING 39 


sayings are found many intimations of a pleasant home 
life. These indicate that his father was, as the compiler 
of one of the gospel narratives suggests, a kind-hearted 
man in whom justice was tempered with mercy, one who 
knew how to ‘‘give his children what is good.” 

Jesus takes many illustrations from home life, such as 
the housewife raising bread from leaven, sweeping the 
corners of an ill-lighted room in search of a lost coin, the 
father in bed at night with the children all around him in 
the common room reluctant to get up and open the door 
for a neighbor who wants to borrow a loaf of bread. The 
early death of his father, leaving his trade and the 
support of the family to him as the oldest son, would 
make the home life and the mother even more distinct 
in his memory. 

While we have no specific information as to the educa- 
tion of Jesus, it was no doubt the same as that of all 
other Jewish boys at the time. The Jews educated all 
their children, not a select few. As soon as he could 
speak he would be taught the “Shema,’’ the national 
creed or confession of faith of which the opening words 
were: ‘‘Hear O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: 
and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart 
and with all thy soul and with all thy might.” As soon 
as possible he learned his letters by writing these same 
words. This instruction was given by his mother and 
later she explained the meaning of the quotation and 
told him of Israel’s heroes and history. Josephus tells 
us that the Jewish children could recite the law more 
easily than tell their own names. 

At the age of six he would be sent to the “vineyard”’ 
or school attached to the local synagogue. Attendance 


40 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


at these schools was made compulsory about the year 
75 B.c. Here he would learn to read the history and 
law of his people from the sacred books in Hebrew which 
at the time had become a classic language. At home he 
spoke Aramaic. That he knew Greek also is indicated 
by the fact that he spoke to the Gentiles apparently 
without an interpreter, as in the case of the Syro- 
Phoenician woman. He no doubt had access to the 
sacred books in the synagogue, for his discourses show 
that he was thoroughly familiar with their contents. In 
the account given of his visit to Nazareth it is stated 
that it was ‘‘his custom” to attend the synagogue wor- 
ship on the Sabbath. 

That the world of nature entered into his education 
is seen from his discourses where he speaks of birds, 
flowers, flocks, herds, clouds and storms, sunrise and 
sunset, and the work of countrymen in farm and vine- 
yard. His native village of Nazareth may not have been 
so small and quiet as is generally supposed. It is now 
a town of about ten thousand, and while it may not have 
. been quite as large in Jesus’ day, it was a place of some 
importance in Galilee. It was located near the great 
highway between Syria and Egypt, to and fro upon 
which for several centuries had marched, alternately 
advancing and retreating, the armies of these ancient 
rivals. The village was situated in a basin on hills 
which rose around it 1,500 feet above the sea. 

No doubt from these hills he often looked down in 
imagination upon ‘‘the kingdoms of the earth and the 
glory of them,” for, as we learn from some of his parables, 
he undoubtedly took an interest in contemporary as 
well as ancient history. The waters of the Sea of 


a 


THE BEGINNING 41 


Galilee were only 15 miles to the east, and about 20 
miles to the northwest lay the great sea, the Mediter- 
ranean, the center of the civilized world. Within full 
view stretched the great plain of Esdraelon, famous for 
many celebrated battles of his nation. In populous 
Galilee he would hear Greek spoken, especially by the 
many traders; from the hills he would see the Roman 
legions march by, and no doubt his active, questioning 
mind took advantage of intercourse with many travelers 
to learn much of the history of his own day. At any 
rate, he acquired a world-outlook and cosmopolitan 
sympathy entirely foreign to the average inhabitant of 
Judea. 
Another not inconsiderable element that entered 
into his education was the frequent visits made to 
Jerusalem. Luke tells us that “his parents used to go 
every year to Jerusalem at the Passover festival’’ and 
has preserved an interesting account of one of these visits 
made when Jesus was twelve years old. At that age 
he had just finished his course in the synagogue school 
and had become ‘‘a son of the law,” subject to all its 
requirements. It was probably his first visit and the 
influence on his inquiring young mind must have been 
very great, arousing all the patriotic instincts which his 
careful study of the history of his people had developed. 
The great Passover festival, lasting for seven days, 
gave large opportunity to the visitors for contact with the 
religio-political leaders and teachers, and Luke’s story 
indicates that the young Jesus made good use of it to 
ask questions about the many things over which he had 
been studying and thinking even at this tenderage. He 
became so interested that he forgot about the time of 


42 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


departure and was left behind when the Nazareth caravan 
departed for home. His parents’ confidence in him is 
indicated by the fact that they evidently felt that he 
could take care of himself and did not notice for a con- 
siderable time that he was not in the company. When 
they returned they found him in the Temple courts 
eagerly questioning the teachers. 

His mother’s natural. complaint that they had been 
anxiously searching for him he answered also naturally 
with another question, as was characteristic of him in 
later days. The object of these visits to Jerusalem was 
to learn about God and his will. It seemed obvious to 
the boy, so absorbed in what to him at least was the real 
object of his visit, that they would know just where to 
find him. ‘Why did you look for me, did you not know 
I must be here?” He could not think how they would 
expect to find him anywhere else. 

This incident indicates that Jesus had already con- 
celved the idea that dominated his life, that God was 
the Father of the individual as well as of the nation, as 
had been taught by the prophets. There is nothing 
abnormal here, but only the natural development of a 
bright, thoughtful boy who was enthusiastic over the 
opportunity so long desired of learning more about the 
great God and Father of his nation whom he had come 
to love and regard as his own Father. 

Still another element of his training for his life-work 
was his trade of carpenter. The word used for carpenter 
in the sources suggests an originator or constructor. 
There are indications in his sayings that he was not a 
mere hired hand but a master-builder, to some extent, 
at least, an employer and director of others. Thus was 


eS o<. a - 


THE BEGINNING 43 


developed leadership and the skill in managing men 
which became evident when he entered upon his public 
ministry. 

3. HIS CALL AND TEMPTATION 

As has been indicated, Jesus is introduced to us in 
the Gospels as one of those who came into the Judean 
wilderness to hear John. John’s fame had spread 
through Palestine and of course had come to the quick 
ears of the carpenter of Nazareth. John’s stirring call 
to a better life and his announcement of the immediate 
approach of the new era appealed strongly to one who 
had been thinking earnestly for years on his nation’s 
destiny and the interests of his ‘‘Father.”’ It was natural, 
therefore, that he should be among those who came to 
hear John preach. 

He was thrilled by John’s stirring words of the 
immediate approach of the age of righteousness, and, 
as in the baptismal rite, he publicly accepted his message 
and committed himself to its furtherance, thinking no 
doubt of the necessity of leadership and of the qualifica- 
tions for such a task, there came to him with vivid force 
the words of the God he had so long recognized as Father, 
in a combination of two well-known messianic passages: 
“Thou art my son, the beloved, in thee is my delight.” 
Jesus had just accepted John’s declaration of the 
immediate approach of the new era, and so these words 
meant for him: ‘‘The time has come and you are my son, 
you are the man who is to deliver your people.” Thus 
came to him probably for the first time the consciousness 
of a unique relationship to God in which he was called 
to a great task and endowed with the power necessary 
for its accomplishment. 


44 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


With the new sense of God’s presence and his great 
responsibility he felt at once compelled to seek solitude. 
He must be alone with his God and Father to think out 
his plan of action. “The spirit drove him immediately 
into the desert.” Thus had come the call to his life- 
work and with it came, as to many others since his time, 
the temptation to seek an easier path. 

The pangs of hunger while meditating on the mighty 
task before him suggested the first phase of the tempta- 
tion. By this time grosser temptations had been con- 
quered. ‘To some extent he now realized his extraor- 
dinary capacities, and with this realization came the 
tempter’s voice: “If you are the son of God you must 
have wonderful power. Why not use it to feed your- 
self?” His answer quoted from the Old Testament: 
‘“‘Man is not to live on bread alone but on every word 
that issues from the mouth of God,” shows that it was 
the temptation that comes sometime to most men, to 
use their powers and capabilities to secure for themselves 
a life of ease and indulgence. It was the temptation 
to use his new power for his own personal interest. In 
this suggestion he recognized Satan’s voice. God never 
accomplished a mission through one who thought of 
himself. 

Then came the question, ‘‘How shall I announce 
myself? How shall I convince the people that my 
message is from God? It is written of him who is the 
object of God’s special care that God’s angels will hold 
him up and not suffer him to fall.”” Why not give the 
people that for which he knew they clamored—“a sign,” 
a spectacular, miraculous demonstration? Why not 
cast himself down from the “pinnacle of the Temple” 


THE BEGINNING 45 


before the multitude, trusting in God’s promise that he 
would be miraculously suspended in the air and suffer 
no injury? They would all at once acknowledge his 
divine leadership and follow him. In this he recognized 
another evil suggestion—testing God, not trusting him. 
In after-days, when pressed for such spectacular demon- 
stration, he said: ‘‘The Kingdom of God is not coming 
in a spectacular visible manner; people will not say, 
‘Look?! ‘Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’”’ 

The next question that came to him was with regard 
to the method of accomplishment of his mission. Why 
not fall in with the popular idea, make common cause 
with the present leaders, and so enlist at once thousands 
who were ready to follow a military leader, conquer the 
nations, and then teach them his ideals in a manner 
similar to the later program of Mohammedanism. ‘This 
he saw would be worshiping ‘‘the prince of this world,” 
sacrificing all his ideals for the sake of military power as 
has often been done by great men since his day. He had 
evidently thought out the absorbing problem of his 
countrymen—their relation to Rome—and his solution 
gave no place to military resistance. In order to ‘‘wor- 
ship the Lord their God” he saw that they needed a 
change from within, a new attitude toward God, a new 
conception of the Kingdom. 

Through all these phases of temptation he passed 
successfully and found peace and satisfaction, felt 
assured of the approval of the Father—‘‘Angels came 
and ministered to him.” 

The source of the story of his call and temptation is of 
course Jesus himself. It is a bit of autobiography told 
later to his disciples during one of their seasons of retreat 


46 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


in the picture language which was the usual literary 
form of his teaching. It was his custom to describe the 
subjective in objective pictorial terms. For example, 
when he was congratulating his disciples on the success 
of their mission he said: “I saw Satan like lightning fall 
from heaven,” and when he rebuked Peter for tempting 
him to turn from the hard path of duty he said to him: 
‘““Get thee behind me, Satan.” If he had given his 
disciples a psychological statement of how he first became 
conscious of his mission it would not have been under- 
stood or remembered. 


4. HIS RELATIONSHIP TO JOHN 


‘After John had been arrested Jesus went to Galilee 
preaching the Good News from God.” This statement 
in our oldest gospel following the account of the tempta- 
tion implies that Jesus stayed in Judea until John’s 
arrest. He probably took up John’s message, as this is 
stated as being his theme when he left Judea and went 
to Galilee: ‘“‘The time has now come. God’s Kingdom 
is near: repent and believe the good news.” It would 
be natural for him to begin in Judea and to try out his 
message in Jerusalem. When John was arrested he 
saw it was not safe there and that to remain would result 
in ending his career before his mission was accomplished. 
Josephus says that Herod Antipas arrested John because 
he feared lest the great influence John had on the people 
might put it in his power to raise a rebellion, while the 
gospel sources give the specific reason that John rebuked 
him for taking his brother’s wife. The two reasons are 
compatible. 

During John’s imprisonment news came to him of 
Jesus’ activity and he sent some of his disciples to ask 


THE BEGINNING 47 


him if he were really the ‘Coming One.” Jesus’ answer 
indicates that he was not yet ready to announce his 
messiahship. In fact, he probably was not yet thor- 
oughly convinced in his own mind but was feeling his 
way and wanted John to judge for himself. He there- 
fore asked John’s disciples to recount to their master the 
wonderful works which seemed to him the premonition of 
the coming Kingdom. ‘The nature of these works would 
clearly indicate to John that he was not the stern judge 
he had been expecting nor the Messiah of popular 
expectation. 

Jesus’ opinion of John as given in Matthew and Luke 
shows that he understood John as fulfilling the prophecy 
of Elijah’s coming as the forerunner of the Messiah. He 
said to his disciples, referring to John: “‘He is the Elijah 
which is to come.” He recognized the difference between 
his own urbane, cheerful method and John’s rough, 
stern address and saw that the people, like wilful children, 
were pleased with neither. When the news of John’s 
execution at the hands of Herod in the fortress of 
Machaerus east of the Dead Sea where he had been 
imprisoned was brought to Jesus by John’s disciples no 
doubt he got a premonition of what was in store for 
anyone who would fearlessly proclaim a kindred message. 
Quite early in his ministry the records represent him as 
forecasting his own destiny. 


5. HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY 


When Jesus returned to Galilee he made his head- 
quarters at Capernaum, perhaps attracted there partly 
by the fact that it was the home of Peter and Andrew, 
but especially because it was a great center of population. 


48 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


It was the chief port on the Sea of Galilee and through it 
ran the great highway from Damascus to Jerusalem and 
from Egypt to Babylon. It was thus in touch with the 
Graeco-Roman life of the Empire. 

In the account of the calling of the first disciples, the 
abruptness of the call and the immediate response 
indicate a previous acquaintance. He may have met 
them in Judea and been to some extent associated with 
them there. This was a formal call when there was no 
longer danger of interference with John. It has been 
customary to speak of Jesus’ first disciples as poor, 
ignorant fishermen. For this there isno warrant. They 
belonged rather to the comfortable middle class. 
Zebedeus, the father of James and John, was apparently 
well todo. He owned ‘‘a boat and nets” and had “‘hired 
servants.”” Peter owned a house in Capernaum where 
Jesus was entertained during most of his ministry and a 
boat that is often mentioned as being used by Jesus and 
his disciples. 

Jesus began his work quietly teaching and preaching. 
He did not announce himself as the Messiah. He “‘came 
into Galilee preaching the good news from God.” He 
“‘made a tour around the villages teaching.” ‘‘He was 
preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.” No attempt 
will be made to give a detailed story of his life with a cor- 
rect order of events. The gospels are sermons rather than 
biographies and are made up of incidents from his life 
and portions of his teaching which most impressed them- 
selves on the disciples and which they used for various 
purposes. A detailed story of his life is not germane 
to this study. It is only necessary to show the great 
part he played in the rise of Christianity. 


THE BEGINNING 49 


From the temptation we can see why Jesus began his 
work by teaching and did not announce himself as the 
Messiah until near the close of his life. It shows that 
he realized the great gulf between his conception of the 
Kingdom of God and that of the people. He felt that he 
must bridge this gulf by teaching them the true concep- 
tion, and he saw that it would be no easy task. He must 
get them to give up the idea of material world-conquest. 
To announce himself as Messiah would direct attention 
to himself rather than to his teaching, and raise hopes of 
material glory and national aggrandizement that could 
never be realized and that would completely prevent the 
true ideal from finding a lodgment in their minds. 

Mark’s picture of the first days in Capernaum is no 
doubt a good sample of Jesus’ work. This account 
Mark probably got from Peter. Capernaum was Peter’s 
home and those first days of discipleship were very vivid 
and were indelibly impressed on his memory. ‘As soon 
as the Sabbath came he at once began to teach in the 
synagogue.” Luke tells us when speaking of the visit 
to Nazareth that it was ‘“‘his custom” to go to the 
synagogue on the Sabbath. Here was the best oppor- 
tunity to begin his work of teaching in any community. 
The synagogue laid stress on teaching, and visitors were 
often invited to speak. ‘This opportunity was frequently 
used by Paul in later days. 

The people were astonished at the freshness and 
force of Jesus’ teaching. Unlike the ordinary teachers, 
the scribes, he did not quote the teachings of the old 
rabbis but spoke with the directness of personal knowl- 
edge. He spoke out of his own experience, his individual 
consciousness of intimate communion with God. 


50 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


The substance or content of his teaching is not given, 
but we can form a good conception of it from the incident 
recorded by Luke of his teaching in the synagogue at 
Nazareth when he read from Isaiah: 


The spirit of the Lord is upon me, 

For he has anointed me to preach the good news 
to the poor, 

He has sent rhe to proclaim release for captives 

And restoring of sight for the blind, 

To set free those that are oppressed, 

To proclaim the Lord’s year of favor. 


He then proceeded to speak to the people from this 
text. The time spoken of by the prophet had arrived 
and he himself was carrying out the prophet’s word. 
The poor were having the “‘good news” preached to them; 
the captives to sin were being set free; the spiritually as 
well as the physically blind were having their sight 
restored; the oppressed with burdens of legalism put 
upon them by the religious leaders of the time were 
being relieved; the great time of deliverance, the Day 
of the Lord ushering in the Kingdom of God, had begun. 
The rule of God was about to be established. The 
people should get ready by leading a new life. The 
details of that life formed the burden of his teaching. 
A note of warning also, suggestive of the stern message 
of John, is indicated by his answer to their implied 
rejection of his message. If they would reject him God 
would send him as he had sent his prophets of former 
times to those who would gladly accept. 

In the synagogue in Capernaum on this first Sabbath 
which we are taking as typical of Jesus’ public ministry 
was ‘‘a man with an unclean spirit,” probably a man of 


THE BEGINNING 51 


diseased mentality whose affliction exhibited itself in 
an evil life. ‘This man was so affected by the force and 
vitality of Jesus’ words that he cried out in acknowledg- 
ment of his sin and protested against what he felt was a 
rebuke. With the calm and firm assurance of his 
authoritative personality Jesus restored him to a state 
of mental and moral sanity and at once established a 
reputation for “casting out demons.” 

The nature of these diseases with which the demon- 
iacs of the New Testament were afflicted corresponds to 
what are now called diseases of personality and of double 
consciousness. A good example is that of the man who 
thought he was possessed with a legion of demons. At 
one time he spoke in his own person and at another even 
in the same sentence as if he were other persons. When 
asked his name he replied, “My name is Legion, because 
we are many.” 

The belief in evil spirits as the cause of specific forms 
of disease came to Palestine from the east, especially 
from Persia, in the second century B.c., and people were 
thought to be in constant danger of them. Jesus appar- 
ently used the language of the people of his time in sci- 
entific matters. For example, he speaks of the “four 
corners of the Earth,” the ‘‘sun rising in the east,” etc. 
He might as well have stopped to explain the ordinary 
phenomena of nature as to explain that of demoniacal 
possession which was just as ordinary to the people of 
that day. Since the time of Alexander the vices of the 
east and west had poured into Palestine and there were 
multitudes of distortions of body and mind. The two 
classes spoken of as evil spirits and unclean spirits may 
correspond to mental and moral disorders. That these 


52 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


cases constitute a large part of Jesus’ cures is natural 
because of his powerful personality and perfectly sane 
mind and sound body. 

The demoniacs often cried out and called Jesus “Son 
of God” or “Son of David.” These people of disordered 
mentality heard everybody speaking about Jesus and his 
mighty work and associated him at once with their early 
teaching about the great deliverer who was expected. 
Jesus rebuked them because he did not want his work 
of teaching to be hindered by too much publicity, and 
because he wanted to avoid being regarded as a healer 
rather than asa teacher. He did not wish to be regarded 
as the Messiah before he had set forth the fundamental 
principles of his Kingdom. He wanted to avoid mis- 
understanding and disappointment. 

From the synagogue on that first Sabbath in Caper- 
naum he went into Peter’s house where Peter’s mother-in- 
law was cured of a fever. There is no reason to doubt 
that Jesus cured many cases of ordinary disease as well 
as those of disordered mentality. The influence of a 
powerful mind over certain physical conditions is now 
recognized by medical science. Jesus did not claim that 
his cures were contrary to nature. ‘The earliest record 
does not claim that he healed all, but that “he cured 
many who were ill with various diseases and cast out 
many demons.” 

These cures were not regarded by Jesus as “‘signs”’ 
or spectacular, supernatural demonstrations. When 
asked by the Pharisees for a ‘‘sign”’ he replied: “An 
evil and disloyal generation craves a sign, but no sign 
will be given except the sign of Jonah, for as Jonah was 
a sign to Ninevites so shall the Son of Man be to this 


THE BEGINNING 53 


generation.” His message like that of Jonah was a call 
to repentance. His authority was not shown by “‘signs”’ 
but by teaching which should appeal to the moral con- 
sciousness of men. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 
pp. 8-35. 

. Burton and Mathews, Life of Christ, pp. 49-86. 

. Kent, Life and Teachings of Jesus, pp. 43-108. 

. Barton, Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 73-141. 

. Robinson, St. Mark’s Life of Jesus, pp. 19-34. 

. Farrar, Life of Christ, chaps. v—ix, xil, xvii. 

. Glover, The Jesus of History, pp. 23-62. 

. Rhees, Life of Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 70-137. 

. Weiss, Life of Christ, Vol. I, chaps. viii-xi; Vol. I, chaps. iv—ix. 


e 


Co Or Aun PW DN 


CHAPTER IV 


THE MESSAGE 
WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY ? 


1. The Kingdom of God 


Deut. 18:15; Isa. 11:1-10; Ps. 110; Dan. 2:44; 7:13-14, 
27; Ps. Sol. 17; I Enoch 45-53; 58; 62; 69:29; 71:14-173 
o1:12-17; Test. XII P., Lev. 18; Jud. 24; Assmp. M., 10; 
Mark 1:15; 4:26-29; 7:15-23; 9:43-47; 10:14, 15, 
23-25; 12:34; Matt. 5:3, 10, 19, 20, 39, 44; 6:10; 8:11, 
T2s hrs 21S—so8 162 103) (to323—263 Vi eOuI- tO swe ae eee 
25:1-30; Luke 8:1-10; 12:31, 32; 17:20, 21; Rom. 
14:17; cf. John 331-8; 4:19-26; 11:48 


2. Its Citizenship 


Isa. 57:15; Jer. 31:31-33; Mark 7:15-23; 10:15; Matt. 
5:3-16; Luke 6: 20-49 


. Its Constitution 


Mark 10:15; Matt. 5:17—6:18; 6:24; 7:12; Luke 12: 13- 
21; 16:19-31 


4. God and Man 


Luke 15:1-24; Matt. 5:16, 44, 45, 48; 6:25-343 7397-1; 
10; 20-31; I1:25-30; John 1:12 


. Man and God 


Mark 11:22-25; Matt. 5:33-37, 43-48; 6:1-8, 16--34; 
Luke r1:1-8; 17:5, 6; 1821-14; John 8:39-44 


. Man and Man 


“The time has now come. 
near, repent and believe in the Good News.” 
the words with which Jesus began his public ministry 
and in them is announced his great theme, the Kingdom 
of God, or its equivalent, the Kingdom of Heaven. 


Mark 12: 28-34; Matt. 5: 21-28, 38-48; 7:1-6, 12; Luke 
10: 25-37 


I. THE KINGDOM OF GOD 


54 


The Kingdom of God is 
These were 


The 


THE MESSAGE 55 


Greek word in our sources translated Kingdom may be 
rendered also ‘‘realm,” “reign,” “rule,” or “‘govern- 
ment,” but the old phrase has become so vital a part of 
our literature that it may perhaps better be retained for 
our present purpose. All Jesus’ discourses are pregnant 
with this theme and it is the subject of most of the par- 
ables. When he sent out the twelve disciples on a 
missionary journey he said: ‘‘Tell men the Kingdom of 
Heaven is near.” He “sent them out to preach the 
Kingdom of God.’ When later he sent out seventy 
disciples he said: ‘‘Heal those who are ill and tell them 
‘The Kingdom of God is nearly on you.’”’ 

Jesus found this phrase ready at hand in the vocabu- 
lary of the people. While there were, as has been seen 
above, different ideas of the Kingdom of God in his 
day, the popular conception was that of a world-empire 
with Jerusalem as its capital and the Messiah, a descend- 
ant of David, as king. The Kingdom of God should be 
the rule of Israel with all enemies overthrown. He took 
up this phrase which was so well known. It gave him 
immediate access to the ears of the people. Everybody 
was at once interested and listened eagerly. Messian- 
ism was in the air, for the people were distressed and 
looking for deliverance. 

Jesus, however, put a new content into the old words. 
He said nothing about Rome or the overthrow of political 
enemies. He did not deal with Jews merely as Jews but 
with Jews as men. He said little of political conditions. 
“Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar,” he said, when 
tempted to denounce the paying of taxes to Rome, 
“give God what belongs to God.” When pleased with 
the attitude of the Roman army captain he said to his 


56 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


followers: ‘‘I have never met with faith like this any- 
where in Israel. Many, I tell you, will come from east 
and west and take their places beside Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, while the sons of 
the Kingdom [the Jews who naturally should belong to 
the Kingdom] will pass outside into the darkness.” To 
him the Kingdom of God meant the rule of God, not the 
rule of Israel, and into this phrase he poured the wealth 
of his teaching. 

It should not be supposed, however, that Jesus was 
not concerned with the burning political problem of his 
people—their relation to Rome against whose rule they 
had been in a state of nascent rebellion ever since its 
inception. On the contrary, there are many indications, 
of which the story of the temptation is one, that he had 
thought it out in all its details and consequences through 
much inner struggle and suffering, and his message is his | 
own solution. 

The Jewish people as a whole, following their 
Pharisaic leaders, expected that God would send a 
deliverer or Messiah who would set up his Kingdom by 
a spectacular defeat of their political masters and dire 
punishment of the ‘‘publicans and sinners.” With them 
religion was something external, the punctilious perform- 
ance of rites and ceremonies. They seem to have had 
no conception of the necessity of an inner change. 

Jesus saw clearly that military opposition to Rome 
would mean the annihilation of the Jewish nation. He 
saw too that external force even if it should result in 
political supremacy could never prepare his countrymen 
for the rule of God—in fact that it would make them 
less prepared because more haughty and self-sufficient. 


THE MESSAGE 57 


He saw that what they needed in order to make them 
acceptable to God, and so fit subjects for his ‘‘ Kingdom,” 
was a moral and spiritual rebirth—an inner change, not 
sudden or spectacular but of gradual growth, which he 
illustrated by the parables of mustard seed and leaven. 
The Pharisees could not see this. All they saw was that 
Jesus was not in favor of opposition to Rome but taught 
non-resistance and love of enemies, and they said: “If 
we let him alone all men will believe in him and the 
Romans will come and take away our place of worship 
and our nation.” 

What then did Jesus mean by the term ‘‘ Kingdom of 
God”? Hedid not defineit. He illustrated or pictured 
it by means of figures or similitudes. He speaks of it as 
a realm or domain into which people enter or from 
which they are excluded, but its boundaries are ethical, 
not physical. ‘‘Unless your righteousness excels that 
of the Scribes and Pharisees,” said he to his followers, 
“vou will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.” 
“How difficult it is for those who have riches to get into 
the Kingdom of God!” ‘To the scribe who correctly 
answered his own question as to the chief commandment 
he said: ‘‘You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” 
sigain he refers to it as a possession, the reward of 
righteousness, a gift of God, the highest good. ‘Do not 
seek food and drink and be worried,” he said, “only seek 
his Kingdom and these things will be yours over and 
above.” ‘Fear not, little flock, for your father is 
delighted to give you the Kingdom.” He compares it 
to ‘‘a treasure hidden in a field” and “‘a pearl of great 
price” for which a man should be glad to give everything 
he possesses. 


58 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


What Jesus means by the term “Kingdom of God”’ 
is the rule of God in the lives of men made possible by 
an inner change, a spiritual rebirth. He told the people 
not to look for anything spectacular. “The Kingdom 
of God,” he said, ‘‘is within you.” He always empha- 
sized the inward and spiritual rather than the outward 
and material. He taught that God judged not from the 
overt act but from the thought and intent of the heart. 
He who would steal if he could steal with apparent 
impunity was a thief even if he never stole anything. 
He who hated a fellow-man so that he would like to kill 
him was a murderer even if he never killed anyone. 

It will be seen that in all the comparisons and illustra- 
tions which Jesus used the emphasis is upon the character 
of the people that make up the Kingdom. ‘The Kingdom 
is not to be regarded as a domain but as a happy condi- 
tion of life to be enjoyed only by people of a certain type 
of character and conduct, and in order to understand it 
we must study its citizenship. ‘This is the theme of the 
famous Sermon on the Mount. 


2. ITS CITIZENSHIP 


The distinguishing characteristics of the citizens of 
the Kingdom of God as given by Jesus may be stated 
as follows: 

1. Receptivity.—This is commonly called faith. It is 
the right attitude toward God, the attitude which a 
normal child has to a normal father, an attitude of 
willingness to learn and of absolute confidence and trust. 
“Let the children come to me,” he said, “do not stop 
them; the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” 
He who would become a citizen of the Kingdom must 


a i 


THE MESSAGE 59 


become ‘like a child.” Hemust be teachable, ‘‘ humble,” 
conscious of need like the publican, not self-sufficient and 
self-righteous like the Pharisee, in the famous parable. 

2. Activity or earnestness —He must not be merely 
passively receptive, he must be active. He must 
“hunger and thirst for righteousness.”” He must “‘ask, 
seek, knock”; he must “strive to get in through the 
narrow door.” ‘There is no place in the Kingdom for 
the lazy or indifferent. 

3. Peaceableness, forbearance, or tolerance.—‘ Blessed 
are the Peacemakers,” he said, ‘‘they will be ranked 
sons of God.”’ This characteristic follows naturally from 
the attitude of kindness as expressed in the Golden Rule. 
Intolerance is not tolerated in the Kingdom. 

4. Purity.—“ Blessed are the pure in heart,” not like 
the Pharisees, clean outwardly and ceremonially but 
‘inside filled with rapacity and self-indulgence.” ‘‘Woe 
to you,” he said to them, ‘“‘you are like tombs white- 
washed; they look comely on the outside but inside 
they are full of dead men’s bones and all manner of 
impurity. So to men you seem just but inside you are 
full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” 

5. Genuineness.—‘‘ Blessed are those who have been 
persecuted for the sake of righteousness,” those whose 
religion is so real that they are willing to suffer persecu- 
tion rather than to cease doing what is right. This is the 
opposite of the characteristic sin of the Pharisees, which 
was acting a part in religion, or hypocrisy. ‘The citizens 
of the Kingdom are known as such ‘‘by their fruits,” 
by practice not by profession. ‘‘It is not everyone who 
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will get into the Kingdom 
of Heaven but he who does the will of my Father in 


60 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Heaven.” Not merely listening to his words, but ‘‘act- 
ing upon them”’ is “building on rock.” 

6. Beneficence, the active prosecution of doing good.— 
It is not enough to be good, the citizen of the King- 
dom must continually do good. He must be the “‘salt 
of the earth,” keeping his community from moral 
decay. He must be the “light of the world,” giving 
continually the light which he has to his fellow-men. 
He must be “merciful,’? he must have the right atti- 
tude toward his fellow-man. This is the real test of 
citizenship. It comprehends and unifies all the others. 
Its classic expression is the famous Golden Rule: ‘‘What- 
ever you would like men to do to you, do just the same 
to them.” Its classic illustration is the parable of the 
Good Samaritan in which Jesus makes clear what he 
means by loving one’s fellow-man even if he should be 
a foreigner and an enemy. 


3. ITS CONSTITUTION 


Jesus was too well acquainted with the deadening 
influence of legalism as established by the religious 
leaders of his day to make the mistake of laying down 
specific and detailed legal enactments for the govern- 
ment of the Kingdom which he believed it was his mission 
to establish. On the contrary, he compared the prin- 
ciples of the Kingdom with the Old Testament laws and 
the legalistic teaching of the synagogues, and set up a 
new high standard of right doing. ‘Unless your right- 
eousness,” he said, “‘excels. that of the scribes and 
Pharisees you will never get into the Kingdom of God.” 
As has been seen, the fundamental conception of the 
Kingdom is the rule of God in the lives of men. The 


THE MESSAGE 61 


nearest Jesus came to defining it was in the Lord’s 
Prayer: ‘‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done,” 
where the second sentence of the couplet according to 
the laws of Hebrew parallelism restates and explains the 
first. It is such a relationship to God as causes men to 
do his will. 

This being Jesus’ conception of the Kingdom he felt 
it to be his mission to teach men such principles as would 
bring their character and lives into harmony with God’s 
will which would then be “done on earth” naturally and 
spontaneously ‘‘as in Heaven,” in the spirit rather than 
in the letter. Jesus took term after term of the written 
law and showed the principles or higher ideals which 
reach back of the law and which if observed fulfil the 
law and make it unnecessary. As God’s will is that 
men should love one another, the prominent element of 
Jesus’ conception is of course the relation of men to one 
another, which will be treated later. 

It is significant that Jesus established no forms or 
ceremonies, nor formulated laws. ‘‘ You have heard,” 
said he in substance, ‘“‘that it was said to them of old 
times, thou shalt or thou shalt not do thus and so, but 
I say unto you God looks into the heart.” His conversa- 
tion with the Samaritan woman as reported in the 
Fourth Gospel is very instructive in this connection. 
When she came to the conclusion that he was a prophet 
she did not think of asking him what she should do to 
get rid of her evil life, but the first question on her lips 
showed what she and her people thought of the greatest 
importance, whether the Samaritan or the Jewish legal- 
ists were correct in their denominational contention. 
“Oh,” she thought, ‘‘now is my opportunity to find out 


62 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


which denomination is right,’ and she said: ‘Our 
ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but the Jews say 
that the proper place for worship is in Jerusalem.” 
‘‘Woman,”’ said Jesus, “believe me the time is coming 
when you will worship the Father neither on this moun- 
tain nor in Jerusalem—but real worshipers will worship 
him in spirit and in reality.” 

Jesus did not formulate or promulgate a system of 
doctrine. He taught that all “the law and the prophets,” 
all religion is summed up in two precepts, ‘‘ You must 
love God with all your heart, you must love your fellow 
man as yourself.” Sometimes, however, the very words 
he used to express principles or fundamental general 
truths have by a crude, literalistic mode of interpreta- 
tion been made to express specific legal enactments of 
the most uncompromisingly rigid type with no appeal to 
human consciousness. 

A typical group of these sayings is found in Matthew 
5:38-48 where Jesus is illustrating the superiority of the 
ideal which his disciples should have to the lex talionis 
of the Old Testament, as it had been taught by the scribes 
and Pharisees—the superiority of love to law in dealing 
with our fellow-men; the principle of doing good for 
evil. What he means by the seemingly difficult precept, 
“Love your enemies,” is explained by the Hebraic 
parallelism in Luke, ‘‘Do good to those who hate you,” 
and is forcibly illustrated by the parable of the Good 
Samaritan. The wounded man in the parable was a 
Jew and consequently a bitter enemy of the Samaritan, 
and yet the Samaritan did good to him. “Love” here 
is plainly not the kind of love we have for a kinsman or 
friend. ‘Bless those who curse you” is a strong para- 


THE MESSAGE 63 


doxical statement of this same general principle of render- 
ing good for evil. The famous saying about offering the 
other cheek also is another paradox which simply means 
to suffer injury rather than to inflict injury. 

In these passages Jesus is teaching principles or 
general truths and these principles are expressed in 
epigrams or paradoxes, in accord with the Hebrew 
method of teaching, for the sake of securing and compel- 
ling thought. That it is impossible to take them liter- 
ally is easily seen from such examples as those in Matt. 
5:29, 30, where Jesus does not mean of course that one 
should literally “pluck out” his eye or “cut off” his 
hand. ‘These are forcible, figurative expressions of the 
general principle that one should give up his dearest 
treasure or desire if it conflicts with his duty to God. 
The saying about offering the other cheek is illustrated 
by Jesus’ own conduct at his trial. When smitten on 
one cheek he did not turn the other but in a dignified 
manner remonstrated with the man who smote him. 

These specific statements are to be understood in the 
light of the general principle commonly known as the 
Golden Rule, which is given as asumming up of them all: 
“‘Well then, whatever you would like men to do to you 
do just the same to them; that is the meaning of the 
law and the prophets.” They are to be obeyed ‘“‘in 
the spirit” rather than ‘‘in the letter.” A disciple of 
Jesus must not refuse to “give” from a selfish motive. 
If he could himself conscientiously ask for aid in the same 
circumstances, then he must give. The correct applica- 
tion of the principle expressed in this Golden Rule will 
solve all the difficulties that are found with the apparently 
specific precepts. 


64 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


4. GOD AND MAN 


“‘Our Father in heaven ’”’—this was the name by which 
Jesus taught his disciples to address God and the idea 
thus expressed is the foundation of all his teaching— 
the fatherhood of God. The name “Father” applied 
to God was not originated by Jesus. In the Old Testa- 
ment in a few places God is referred to as the Father of 
the nation, and in two or three instances as Father in 
the creative sense. But he was regarded for the most 
part as a mighty sovereign, like the oriental kings, living 
far off from his people and having no intercourse with 
them except through special messengers called angels. 
His favor was to be secured by absolute obedience to his 
laws and tribute paid by means of sacrifices offered by 
priests. His worship tended to become a cold, pitiless 
legalism with no personal contact of the individual and 
consequently no warmth of devotion. In the Psalms, 
the great hymnbook and expression of Israel’s feeling 
toward God, the name ‘‘Father” is not used in addressing 
God. ‘The Jews would have thought it irreverent to use 
such a familiar name. 

In Jesus’ teaching, however, Father is the name for 
God, not occasional but habitual, not general but per- 
sonal. This was his starting-point. “Did you not 
know,” he said to his parents when they found him in 
the Temple, ‘‘that I had to be in my Father’s house ?” 
And afterward repeatedly he used the same intimate 
expression. In prayer he habitually addressed God as 
“My Father.” It was this personal claim which was 
resented by the Jews and which they regarded as “‘blas- 
phemy,”’ but Jesus used the same term to express God’s. 


THE MESSAGE 65 


relationship to all men—his own disciples, Pharisees, 
publicans and sinners, Jews and Gentiles. This is 
evident from the fact that when addressing all classes 
he uses the phrase ‘‘ Your Father.” 

Jesus used this designation in an idealized sense to 
indicate that all that a human father is or can be to his 
children God is to men. His attitude toward men is 
that of a normal father to his children, but without the 
faults and frailties of a human father. ‘‘You must be 
perfect,” he said, ‘“‘as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 
He used this analogy to illustrate God’s readiness to 
answer prayer and to do as much or more than is asked 
by his children. ‘‘Which of you,” he said, ‘“‘when asked 
by his son for a loaf will give him a stone? Well, if for 
all your evil you know enough to give your children 
what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven 
give good gifts to those who ask him P” 

Jesus’ conception of the intense forgiving father-love 
of God is very forcibly illustrated by the three parables 
of Grace as given in Luke: the lost sheep, the lost coin, 
the lost son. ‘These are illustrations of the fact that all 
men are God’s children and he considers each individual 
soul of value. If they are “lost” he does not rest until 
they are ‘‘found,” and when they are found his heart 
is filled with joy. The last, which is commonly known 
as the “Prodigal Son,” is called by Dickens ‘‘the most 
touching passage in all literature.” It might better be 
named ‘‘The Forgiving Father,” for it is intended as a 
picture of the forgiving love of God, which he bestows 
upon his children even when it is utterly unmerited. It 
was a complete refutation of the commercial merit and 
reward, guid pro quo idea of religion held by the Jews as 


66 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


well as by other peoples in Jesus’ day, and not entirely 
discarded at the present time. 

Jesus taught that God was not a task-master nor a 
lawgiver but a tender-hearted, devoted Father who 
loves each individual child no matter how wayward or 
undeserving. It was this fundamental conception of 
God as Father in a real, intimate sense that gave the 
message of Jesus its strongest appeal to the hearts of 


men. 
5. MAN AND GOD 


‘“‘Love your enemies that you may become sons of 
God.”’ In these words is implied the real meaning of 
sonship as applied to the relationship of men to God. 
It is an ethical relationship similar to that of God to 
man. While, as we have seen, God is the Father of all 
men because his character and attitude are always right, 
all men are not sons of God because their character and 
attitude are not always right. So Jesus exhorted men 
to be like God in character in order that they might 
“become” his sons. To the Jews who rejected God’s 
message and refused to do his will, Jesus said that they 
were not sons of God but sons of the devil, just as they 
were not sons of Abraham because they did not have 
Abraham’s character. 

The right attitude of man to God is that of a normal 
child to a normal father—the attitude that a child has 
to his father before he learns that father is not all wise, 
all powerful, and all loving. He is then receptive and 
teachable—-willing and anxious to learn what father 
wants him to do and eager to obey, glad to ask father for 
what he wants and to share with father what he may 
have, proud to be called his father’s child. He is abso- 


THE MESSAGE 67 


lutely trustful—ready to jump over a precipice into 
father’s arms, in fact to do whatever father says without 
question, because father knows and father loves. This 
is the attitude which is called ‘“‘faith.”’ 

When Jesus was asked what was the greatest com- 
mandment he said: ‘You must love God with all your 
heart.” This precept includes all of man’s duty to God, 
for if he loves God he will be eager to do his will; it will be 
his delight. ‘This attitude settles all questions of the use 
of riches and talents of all kinds, for if a man loves God he 
will gladly give him a whole-hearted devotion—himself, 
all that he has, all that he is and can be. This is what 
is meant by love. 

6. MAN AND MAN 


Whatever you would like men to do to you, do just 
the same to them; that is the meaning of the Law and 
the Prophets.” In these words is summed-up man’s 
whole duty to his fellow-man. They express the general 
principle by which the follower of Jesus is to be guided 
in all his relations with his fellow-men. They explain 
in concrete terms the attitude of God to man and man 
to God, so often referred to as “love” and typified by 
the normal, earthly relationships of fatherhood and 
sonship. Jesus’ second ‘“‘greatest commandment”’ is 
“You must love your fellow-man as yourself.” Just as 
the first includes all of a man’s duty to God, so the second 
includes all of a man’s duty to his fellow-man. He will 
treat him as he wants to be treated himself. This 
attitude settles all social and economic questions, for 
if a man loves his fellow-man he will never do anything 
to injure him, but on the contrary will always yeaa 
to do him good. 


68 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


What is meant by this love or right attitude of man 
to man is beautifully illustrated in the parable of the 
Good Samaritan. ‘The wounded “‘man from Jerusalem”’ 
had no claim upon the Samaritan in the eyes of the Jews 
of Jesus’ day. The Jews and Samaritans were bitter 
enemies. When Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a 
drink of water she was greatly surprised: “What? You 
are a Jew, and ask me for a drink--me, a Samaritan!” 
And the writer explains: ‘“‘Jews do not associate with 
Samaritans.” The Jew too was usually the aggressor. 
The Samaritan knew that if the wounded Jew were not 
in that plight and he should venture to speak to him, he 
would spit in his face and call him a “dog.” The 
Samaritan knew that he took his life in his hands when 
he stopped and crossed that road to help the wounded 
Jew, for it was a dangerous road infested by highway- 
men. On either side were dark, gloomy caves, admirable 
lurking places for robbers. One of these was probably 
near by. If he stopped, the robbers who could not be 
far off might attack him and they would give the hated 
foreigner less consideration than they had given their 
own countryman. The Samaritan too must have had 
important business as he was far from home in an 
enemy’s country. He knew that to help the wounded 
man would cause considerable delay. But none of these 
considerations deterred him; he “showed mercy,” he 
‘proved a neighbor to him that fell among the robbers.” 

Such was Jesus’ message. He announced the com- 
ing of the Kingdom of God, an ethical and spiritual 
relationship resulting in a moral society in which God is 
not only the ruler but especially the loving father of all 
the “citizens.”” Men who come into this relationship 


THE MESSAGE 69 


become sons of God. They delight to learn and to do 
his will; they are proud of being his children and give 
him whole-hearted, unreserved devotion. As sons of 
God they are brothers and treat one another as they 
want to be treated themselves. The fundamental 
principle of this society, the common foundation of 
these relationships is ‘‘love’—that love which is so 
beautifully described in the inimitable words of Jesus’ 
greatest disciple: 


Love is long-suffering and kind, love knows no jealousy; 

Love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, 

Is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resent- 
ful; 

Love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened 
by goodness, 

Always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, 

Always hopeful, always patient. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. Stevens, The Teaching of Jesus, pp. 58-80, 107-16, 130-39. 

. Scott, The Kingdom and the Messiah, pp. 1-28, 88-116. 

. Kent, Life and Teachings of Jesus, pp. 134-215. 

. Glover, The Jesus of History, pp. 87-138. 

. Barton, Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 169-80. 

. Wendt, Teaching of Jesus (3d sec.), pp. 173-206, 287-352. 

. Simkhovitch, Toward the Understanding of Jesus, pp. 37-83. 

. Burton, A Source Book for the Teaching of Jesus, pp. 110-213. 


on Amn BPW ND H 


CHAPTER V 


THE CONFLICT 


HOW THE MESSAGE WAS RECEIVED 


. Early Popularity. 
Mark 1321-45} 231-43 3:7-213.4:1; 5:21-43; 6:30-44, 
53-56; 7:24, 33-37; 8:1, 2; 10:1; Matt. 3:5, 6; 7:29; 
Luke 3:15 
2. Increasing Opposition 
Mark ) 2:5-12,) 15-18,) 23-28; 351-0, 22-35; 724-0; 
Matt. 23; cf. Matt. 12:22-37; 6:22, 23; Deut. 6:6-9 
. The Crisis 
Mark 6:14—7:23; Matt. 14:1—15:20; cf. John 6: 15-27, 
47-67 
4. The Retirement 
Mark 7:24—9:32; cf. Matt. 15:21—17: 23 
5. The Final Advance 
Mark to: 1—11:1; Matt. 19: 1—21:1; Luke 9:51—10: 42; 
13322-35; I9:1I-II 


al 


Ww 


I. EARLY POPULARITY 


“What does this mean?” ‘It’s a new teaching with 
authority behind it!” ‘He orders even unclean spirits!”’ 
“Yes, and they obey him!”’ With such exclamations as 
these was Jesus’ first public appearance in Galilee in the 
synagogue at Capernaum received by the people. Our 
oldest gospel gives a vivid description of his activity in 
these early days. His popularity increased rapidly, 
people thronged around him whether in the city or 
the desert. 

After the events of the first Sabbath in Capernaum 
when the people crowded around Peter’s house and 
“the whole town was gathered at the door, and he 


7O 


THE CONFLICT m1 


cured many who were ill and cast out many demons 
. In the early morning long before daylight he 
got up and went away out to a lonely spot.’”’ When 
his disciples “hunted him out and discovered him he 
said, ‘Let us go somewhere else, to the country towns, 
so that I may preach there as well; that is why I came 
out here.’’? ‘These words give a graphic picture of the 
beginning of his popularity, and it rapidly increased. 

When he returned to Capernaum after having made 
a tour of the smaller towns of Galilee and “‘it was reported 
that he was at home, a large number at once gathered 
till there was no more room for them, not even at the 
door.” In order to get a sick man to him “‘they tore up 
the roof under which he was speaking and through the 
opening they lowered the paralytic lying on his rug.” 

Later he ‘‘retired with his disciples to the sea, and a 
great crowd from Galilee followed him. A great number 
also came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, the 
other side of the Jordan, and the neighborhood of Tyre 
and Sidon as they heard of his doings. So he told his 
disciples to have a small boat ready. This was to 
prevent his being crushed by the crowd, for he healed so 
many that all who had complaints were pressing on him 
ipecen ay touch.of him. sean Then he went up into the 
mountain and summoned the men he wanted and they 
went to him.” 

Here the earliest gospel records his choosing of a 
select number ‘‘to be with him and that he might send 
them out to preach.” He no doubt felt the unstable 
character of the crowds and the impossibility of reaching 
them all himself. He decided to train a select number 
thoroughly in the principles of the Kingdom, that he 


72 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


might have their assistance in reaching large numbers. 
“Then they went indoors but the crowd gathered 
together again so that it was impossible even to have a 
TT CANS i is Once more he went to teach by the sea- 
side and an immense crowd gathered around him; so 
he entered a boat on the sea and sat down while all the 
crowd stayed on shore.” 

On another occasion he said to his disciples: “‘Come 
away to some lonely spot and get a little rest.” ‘For 
there were so many people coming and going that they 
could get no time even to eat. So they went away 
privately in the boat to a lonely spot.”’ They went to 
the other side of the lake. But some people saw them 
going and ‘‘got to the place before them by hurrying 
there on foot from all the towns.”’ 

There were several reasons for this great popularity. 
John the Baptist’s stirring message of the immediate 
coming of the new era of righteousness had permeated 
all Palestine. ‘‘ Jerusalem and the whole of Judea and 
all the Jordan district went out to him and were 
baptized.”’ Jesus took up John’s message as soon as 
John was arrested while “the people were in a state of 
expectation.” Then the freshness of Jesus’ message was 
very striking. ‘The people were astounded at his teach- 
ing for he taught them as an authority and not as their 
scribes.”” Their ordinary teachers always quoted the 
old writers as if having no basis of conviction in personal 
experience, but Jesus spoke with absolute assurance out 
of the wealth of his own intimate communion with his 
Father. But without doubt the greatest source of his 
popularity was his cures which lead them to look on 
him as a wonder-worker. This was directly contrary 


THE CONFLICT 73 


to his desire. Again and again he asked the persons 
healed not to say anything aboutit. As noted in chapter 
ili, he wished to avoid undue publicity because it inter- 
fered with his teaching, which he regarded as his real 
mission. But these warnings apparently availed little. 
The natural desire for help in bodily disease in those days 
when no other help could be obtained, as even today 
with all our advancement in medical science, attracted 
the people in ever increasing throngs. 


2. INCREASING OPPOSITION 


At the very first the scribes and Pharisees probably 
regarded Jesus as a self-taught rabbi whose methods and 
teachings were similar to those of many others. They 
listened to him and even invited him to their homes. But 
very soon they began to oppose him, and their opposition 
steadily increased. They accused him of blasphemy. 
The first occasion mentioned for this charge was Jesus’ 
words to a paralytic whom four friends succeeded in 
bringing before him in spite of the crowds by tearing up 
the roof under which he was speaking and lowering 
the man down on his rug. Jesus saw that the man 
had ‘‘faith,” that is to say, the right attitude toward 
God, the attitude of receptivity, teachableness, and trust 
that secures God’s favor, and he said: “‘My son, your 
sins are forgiven.”’ ‘These words at once kindled the 
suspicion and jealously of the scribes who were present. 
“What does this fellow mean by talking like this ?” they 
said “‘It is blasphemy!’ The idea of this itinerant rabbi 
taking upon himself to grant what could only be obtained 
from God by punctiliously satisfying all the Levitical 
ritual! If this were allowed, all their law and tradition 


74 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


would be discredited by the people. Their occupation 
would be gone. 

The second accusation was that of disregarding the 
Law of Moses and the rules of the Jewish religion, 
because he ate with tax-gatherers and “sinners” and 
because his disciples did not observe the Jewish fast 
days. The most frequent occasion of their accusation 
was his attitude toward the Sabbath. When they 
complained because he healed on the Sabbath he swept 
aside their petty legalistic rules with the fundamental 
principle: ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man 
for the Sabbath.” 

They could not deny his obvious power to cure 
demoniacs but accounted for it by saying he was in 
league with the devil. This brought from Jesus his 
most solemn warning, his reference to the “unforgivable 
sin” by which he meant that if they wilfully closed their 
eyes to the light they would put themselves in a position 
where forgiveness was impossible because they would 
have shut the only door by which God could enter. 

Finally they accused him of treason against Rome and 
“joined the Herodians in a plot against him to destroy 
him.’’ These unscrupulous partisans of Herod had the 
same cause for fearing Jesus that, according to Josephus, 
led to John’s arrest and execution—his power over the 
people, which made him a disturbing element and a 
possible rival to their master. 

An examination of Jesus’ message as given in the last 
chapter and a comparison with the religion taught by 
the scribes will show that this opposition was just what 
might be expected. Their attitude was not primarily 
personal. Its basis was the fundamental antagonism 


THE CONFLICT 75 


of their point of view to his. Their teaching could not 
exist alongside of his. Oil and water could not mix. 

The pharisaic type of religion which Jesus opposed 
was a cold, iron-bound legalism, or rather a combina- 
tion of literalism, legalism, and formalism. Words 
intended to teach principles or general truths as a guide 
of life were interpreted as formulating legal enactments— 
literalism; then mere obedience to those “‘laws” was 
taken as putting God under obligation to favor and bless 
—legalism; and finally the mere legal enactments were 
observed without the heart’s being concerned in the 
observance—formalism. ‘The term ‘“‘legalism” is com- 
monly used to include all three. 

A good example of the legalism here referred to is 
found in the pharisaic interpretation of Deuteronomy 
6:4-9. After the recital of the Decalogue and the 
statement of the Confession of Faith the writer says: 


And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be 
upon thy heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy 
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, 
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, 
and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign 
upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thy eyes. 
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and 
upon thy gates. 


The meaning of this passage seems obvious as being a 
forceful, figurative way of saying that they were to know 
the will of God so well that they could not possibly for- 
get it, that their ‘‘delight should be in the law of Jehovah 
and in his law they should meditate day and night.” But 

the later Pharisees interpreted the words literally and 
wrote certain passages from the law on small pieces of 
parchment which they inclosed in cases with leathern 


76 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


thongs attached and bound on the forehead and left 
arm and also wrote them on their doorposts and lintels, 
and then, as their history shows, they forgot all about 
them. ‘They thus fulfilled the letter while wholly blind 
to the spirit of God’s precepts. These cases were the 
‘“‘phylacteries’’ to which Jesus refers in his scathing 
rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees: ‘‘All they do,” he 
said, ‘‘is done to catch the notice of men for they make 
their phylacteries broad.”’ | 

For these Pharisees religion was something outward. 
It consisted in the observance of the Law of Moses and 
the rites and traditions handed down by their fathers 
which became for them more important than the original 
Law. Forms and ceremonies become so prominent as 
to exclude all thought of the ethical and spiritual. 
With Jesus religion was not something outward, exhibited 
in forms and ceremonies, but something inward in heart 
and life, not of letter but of spirit, not rites but service. 
He paid no attention to forms and ceremonies, rules and 
traditions. His disciples did not observe the Jewish 
fasts nor did they pay any attention to the ceremonial 
washings and other petty details so punctiliously observed 
by the Pharisees. He ate with “‘publicans and sinners.” 
He did not feel that he was defiled by touching a leper. 
He was not disturbed by the touch of the woman with 
the hemorrhage, and, what was perhaps most flagrant in 
their eyes, he disregarded their petty rules for the Sab- 
bath. This attitude of Jesus filled the Pharisees with 
indignation and dismay. ‘They feared that it was but 
the first step to complete disregard of their elaborate 
system of ritualistic service, which was, for them, the sum 
total of religion. 


THE CONFLICT a7 


Jesus brought a terrible indictment against the 
Pharisees which kindled their enmity to such a pitch of 
frenzy that they joined hands with their former enemies, 
the Sadducees, to plot his death. He charged them with 
being “‘actors”’ in religion, entirely selfish, seeking only 
the praise of men by their outward display of religion. 
Instead of caring for their fellow-men they laid excessive 
burdens on them by teaching obligation of such multi- 
tudinous ceremonies that no man in ordinary circum- 
stances could fulfil them. He said they were like ‘“‘white- 
washed tombs,” seemingly righteous but ‘‘full of hypoc- 
risy and iniquity.” 

3. THE CRISIS 

At last the opposition of the pharisaic leaders began 
to have its effect on the people. Jesus refused to listen 
to their clamor for ‘‘a sign.”’ He wanted to give them 
the true conception of the Kingdom which he felt it 
was his mission to establish. But the rule of God 
did not suit them. They wanted the rule of Israel. The 
gospel records suggest that the crisis came about in this 
way: After Jesus had ‘‘made a tour through all the 
towns and villages,’’ he became convinced that it was 
impossible for him to reach them all. ‘As he saw the 
crowds he was moved with pity for them; they were 
harassed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd.” 
He decided to send out the little band of disciples that 
he had been training. They seem to have had con- 
siderable success, and this brought Jesus and his work and 
influence very forcibly to the notice of Herod Antipas 
and aroused his suspicions and fears. He had just got 
rid of John the Baptist because of John’s growing influ- 
ence over the people, and now his guilty conscience and 


78 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


superstitious nature filled him with the apprehension that 
his victim’s spirit had returned to plague him in the 
person of the popular prophet of Nazareth. 

The gospel records here give us an idea of the impres- 
sion Jesus had made upon the people of Galilee. Some 
thought he was Elijah because of his fearless attitude 
toward those in power among the people. Others 
emphasizing one or another of his characteristics identi- 
fied him with others of the great Old Testament prophets. 
This passage 1s a strong indication that his popularity 
was now exceedingly great, for the greatest compliment 
the people could pay any man was to identify him with 
one of the famous old prophets of their nation, and 
Herod’s interest in him shows that he must have been 
talked about in the palace at Tiberias as well as in the 
streets of Capernaum. 

Jesus no doubt knew very well what Herod’s interest 
in him meant. Tiberias was only a few miles from 
Capernaum. It was not long since John had been 
imprisoned and beheaded. Following closely upon his 
enforced retirement Jesus had begun his public ministry. 
Still greater crowds were following him than had followed 
John. MHerod’s unprincipled partisans, the Herodians, 
were watching his every step, plotting to get evidence 
against him. His reference to Herod later as ‘‘that 
fox’? shows he knew his treacherous character. The 
blow might fall any day. Galilee was becoming a 
very dangerous place. Often he crossed the lake to 
seek safety in the regions not under Herod’s surveil- 
lance. His work had not yet been done. It was too 
early to risk arrest, imprisonment, and, it might be, 
death. 


THE CONFLICT 70 


On the return of his disciples from their preaching 
expedition the crowds thronged around him in such 
numbers that he slipped away “privately in the boat” 
and crossed the lake “to a lonely spot,” but ‘‘a number 
of people” noticed the boat putting out from shore and 
recognized its occupants. The news spread like wild- 
fire, and hundreds of people started on foot around the 
lake. When Jesus and the disciples landed they found 
that “‘the lonely spot’? was occupied by thousands of 
people. “So when Jesus disembarked he saw a great 
multitude of people and out of pity for them, as they 
were like sheep without a shepherd, he began to teach 
them at length.” 

On this day in this desert place occurred a remark- 
able manifestation of Jesus’ power in his satisfying 
the hunger of the people. The circumstances are 
given in detail by all four gospel narratives. Accord- 
ing to the Fourth Gospel the people were raised to 
such a pitch of enthusiasm that they crowded around 
him and tried to compel him to assume their leadership 
and declare himself a king. There was an old tradition 
that when the Messiah should come he would feed the 
people as Moses had done with manna in the wilderness. 
They felt that this was being fulfilled this wonderful day. 

The other three gospels, while not specifically men- 
tioning the clamor of the people for the immediate 
setting up of the messianic Kingdom, seem to imply that 
something of this kind took place. Our earliest gospel 
says that “‘he forced the disciples at once to embark in 
the boat and cross before him towards Bethsaida while 
he dismissed the crowd and after saying goodbye to them 
he went up into the hill to pray.” There was evidently 


80 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


some strong reason why the disciples wanted to stay 
but he compelled them to go. They were probably 
captured by the popular enthusiasm and he feared their 
persuasion and their influence on the people. He wanted 
to be alone as soon as possible to fight again the same 
temptation that came to him at the beginning of his 
ministry, to accept ‘‘the Kingdoms of the earth and 
the glory of them,’’ He qutckly left the crowd and 
in communion with the Father again conquered. 

There is a passage in the Fourth Gospel which may 
reflect his attitude at this time. He is represented as 
speaking to some of the same people the next day when 
they found him in Capernaum, and telling them in the 
strong picture language he so often used that not “loaves 
and fishes,’”’ not the material things of life, but doing the 
will of God as taught in his message (his “flesh and 
blood,”’ the very essence of his life) will bring messianic 
deliverance. ‘After that,” the writer says, ‘“‘many of his 
disciples drew back and would not associate with him 
any longer.’’ In fact, so great was the defection that he 
said to his disciples: ““You do not want to go too, do 
you?’ This was of course to give them an opportunity 
of asserting their fidelity in the crisis. 

The Synoptic Gospels tell us that at this time ‘‘the 
Pharisees gathered to meet him with some scribes who 
had come from Jerusalem.” This was probably a 
delegation sent to investigate his teaching, and is an 
- indication of the impression his public work had made 
in all Palestine. 

The question raised was the importance of the 
ceremonial law. He fearlessly swept away all depend- 
ence on their legalistic ceremonial religion. When 





THE CONFLICT 81 


he found that he could make no impression on the 
legalistic leaders he appealed to the people around. 
The disciples remembered the substance of what he said 
in one of the striking pictorial generalizations so char- 
acteristic of his teaching: ‘‘ Nothing outside of a man 
can defile him by entering into him; it is what comes 
out of a man that defiles him.”’ It is not the outward 
form and ceremony that are of religious significance but 
the thoughts and intent of the heart. Thus he took 
issue with the pharisaic legalists at the vital point of 
contention. His point of view and theirs could not 
exist together. One who took his position at that time 
was doomed to death. 

He decided to leave Galilee. He could do no more 
there now because of the changed attitude of the people, 
and he knew that Herod was watching for an opportunity 
to kill him. While unafraid he would not remain and 
so ‘tempt God.” How little real progress his teaching 
had made in Galilee is seen by his rebuke of the cities 
of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, where most of 
his time had been spent. These words were perhaps 
spoken to his disciples as they left for Tyre on the road 
leading north from Capernaum when he reached a point 
on the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee and the sur- 
rounding plains. It was his sad farewell to the places 
where he had labored long and which had preferred the 
“reign of Israel’’ to the ‘‘reign of God.” 


4. THE RETIREMENT 


There now followed a period of comparative retire- 
ment. Jesus went north through the region of Tyre 
and Sidon and then south again to the Decapolis region 


82 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


along the east shore of the Lake of Galilee. In this way 
he tried out his message in various parts of the country 
where he had not been before, kept out of the reach of 
Herod, and had more opportunity to teach his disciples. 
When in the region of Tyre and Sidon he was in gentile 
territory. He went there for a period of seclusion and 
rest. ‘‘He wished no one to know of it.” 

While in this region the question of Jesus’ mission 
to the heathen came up in the request of a native woman 
that he should heal her daughter. Jesus’ words may 
indicate that he was thinking of the rejection of his 
message by his countrymen. The children (the Jews) 
had refused the food he brought them. Should he 
give it ito the heathen )*’dogs’’?) The term “idogs = 
was commonly applied by the Jews to the Gentiles. 
The fact that Jesus did not use the ordinary harsh 
word for dogs but a term meaning house dogs and 
in all probability his look and tone indicating that 
he himself did not sanction that epithet gave the woman 
courage to pursue her request, and the fact that he 
granted it shows that he really made no distinction on 
account of race or religion. 

Jesus conceived of his work as being practically 
limited to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” but 
this limitation was one of expediency set by the necessi- 
ties of the case. He could not go to all peoples, but 
through his own people the message could be carried to 
the Gentiles. He never refused to help Gentiles when 
they came to him in Palestine. 

From the Decapolis region he went north again to 
Caesarea Philippi. On the road he had a conversation 
with his disciples, the importance of which is indicated 





THE CONFLICT 83 


by the indelible impression it made on their memory, 
and its significance has been recognized by later genera- 
tions. It has been called ‘‘the hour of Christianity’s 
birth.” It was now near the end of the period of wander- 
ing. His plan of action for the future must be decided 
upon, and the prospect before him was certainly not 
promising. He had not succeeded in winning the people 
of the towns of Galilee who, as has been noted, were 
freer from the deadening influence of the rabbinical 
teaching than those of Judea. 

His apostrophe to the cities of Galilee, to which 
reference has been made above, shows his feeling of deep 
disappointment. The religious and political leaders, the 
Pharisees and Herodians, were seeking his life. Only 
Jerusalem remained, and he well knew the danger await- 
ing him there. It was natural that he should want to 
know how far he could trust his disciples. Did they 
believe in him? He had made no claim of messiahship 
thus far. During his period of popularity when the 
crowds were following him with acclaim it was easy for 
the disciples to be loyal, but how did they feel now when 
not only the leaders but the people had turned against 
him and he was practically a fugitive? He decided to 
test them, and so he put the question: ‘“‘Who do people 
say I am?” They gave him the various opinions of 
the people which have been noticed above, and then 
he put the issue squarely before them: ‘‘And you,” 
he said, ‘‘who do you say I am?” ‘Then came the 
answer through Peter their spokesman: “You are the 
Messiah!” 

That this is the first time he claimed messiahship is 
seen from the fact that ‘‘he forbade them to tell anyone 


84 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


that he was the Messiah.” ‘The earlier references in 
the gospels to his use of this title come from the fact 
that the writers wrote either to set him forth as the 
Messiah or took for granted that he was the Messiah and 
were not careful about the chronological order of events 
and statements. He now put his disciples to the test 
by telling them that he was going to Jerusalem in the 
face of what seemed to be certain rejection, suffering, 
and death, thus in effect denying that he was the Messiah 
in the sense Peter intended, although he had acknowl- 
edged it in his own sense of the term. Peter’s protest 
indicates that even his few most intimate disciples did 
not yet have their master’s view of the Kingdom. They 
believed he would succeed from their point of view, 
which was still practically that of the popular expecta- 
tion. They could not think of suffering and death for 
their Messiah. Jesus’ answer: “Get behind me, you 
Satan,’ shows that he felt the force of the natural, 
human temptation to escape from suffering. 

Soon after the conference at Caesarea Philippi the 
gospels tell us that he went to a secluded spot in the 
mountains with Peter, James, and John for prayer. This 
was his third great temptation. The hour had again 
come for decision. He must fight over again the fight 
he had won in the wilderness, and again in “‘the lonely 
spot”? across the Lake of Galilee—whether he would 
‘ yield to the popular messianic sentiment and save his 
life or carry out the teaching of his conception of the 
Kingdom in the face of what seemed to be almost sure 
death. As before in the wilderness, and no doubt in 
the hills near the lake, the voice of God’s approval came 
to him—‘“‘My son, the Beloved’”’—and he was strength- 





THE CONFLICT 85 


ened for the terrible task—to go through the Valley of 
Humiliation—the Valley of the Shadow of Death. 


5. THE FINAL ADVANCE 


“Jesus set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem.” 
“They were on the way up to Jerusalem, Jesus walking 
in front of them; the disciples were in dismay and the 
company who followed were afraid.”’ These words give 
a graphic picture of Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, strid- 
ing on ahead with a look so intense and indicating such 
dedication to duty even at the extreme cost that his 
selected band of disciples were filled with apprehension. 
They had remained faithful to him after having been 
put to the severe test of his fateful words of warning, 
and they followed him when he left Galilee with his face 
turned toward Jerusalem accompanied by a considerable 
number of others who were open minded enough to accept 
a part at least of his message. The full details of this 
“last journey” to Jerusalem are not given. There are 
mentioned only scattered incidents and_ occasional 
teachings. But there is enough to indicate clearly 
Jesus’ mind and purpose and the manner in which he 
was occupied during the journey. 

He no doubt timed his arrival at Jerusalem purposely 
so as to be there at the great Passover festival, for then 
the city would be full of people from all over Palestine, 
and many Galileans would of course be there. This 
would be the opportune time for a final appeal to the 
consciences of the people. At this time the leaders would 
be assembled. He determined to bring matters to an 
issue. They must accept or reject his message. He 
went on, knowing full well their spirit and how little 
real hope there was of winning them. 


86 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Mark’s account says that when Jesus left Capernaum 
“he went into the borders of Judea and beyond the 
Jordan.” ‘The region ‘beyond the Jordan” was Perea, 
a part of the domain of Herod Antipas. The danger of 
arrest in this region is seen from the fact that some 
friendly Pharisees came to him and said: “‘Get away 
from here, for Herod intends to kill you.” His fearless 
confidence in his mission is seen in this characteristic 
answer: ‘‘Go and tell that fox that I cast out demons and 
perform cures today, and tomorrow and on the third 
day I shall complete my task,’’ meaning in the Hebraic 
idiom that he would keep on with his work indefinitely 
without regard to Herod until his mission was accom- 
plished. For the benefit of the Pharisees he added a fine 
piece of irony: “‘But I must journey on today and 
tomorrow and the next day; it would never do for a 
prophet to perish except in Jerusalem,” or, in other 
words, ‘‘There is no danger from Herod, my friends, for 
if I am to die it must be where all prophets perish—in 
Jerusalem.” 

There is no definite indication of how long Jesus spent 
on this journey. From Luke’s statement that “‘he went 
on teaching from one town and village to another” and 
from the incidents that seem to find a place here it is 
probable that he spent several weeks, perhaps even 
months, on the way. He used this opportunity to teach 
his disciples the demands of discipleship and the real 
meaning of religion as service to their fellow-men even 
if it should mean sacrifice, suffering, and death. He 
taught them that if they would be his disciples they must 
be ready to give up everything for the Kingdom, even 
what was as precious to them as hand, foot, or eye. To 


——— 





THE CONFLICT 87 


the “rich young ruler’? who came running to him in 
great earnestness to ask the way of life he said: ‘Go and 
sell all you have and give to the poor and then come and 
follow me.” Discipleship meant absolute committal 
and devotion to the interests of the Kingdom. He 
warned them that they must cut all bridges behind them: 
““No one is any use to the Kingdom of God who puts his 
hand to the plough and then looks behind him.” 

In the region across the Jordan he was farthest 
removed from the influence of the Pharisees, and large 
crowds again followed him. Some of his most important 
teachings as recorded by Luke may have been given 
during this period. In this way. he prepared the minds 
of his followers for the trying times soon to come, so that 
even if they should be temporarily overcome these prin- 
ciples would be so indelibly fixed in their minds that they 
would be fitted to become custodians of the treasures 
of the Kingdom. That they did not give up hope of 
his becoming the Messiah of popular expectation who 
would even at the last moment confound his enemies and 
establish an earthly kingdom is seen from the request of 
James and John to be given the two chief offices in it and 
the dispute of the disciples as to “‘which of them should 
be greatest.” 

After the journey through Perea he crossed the Jordan 
into Judea and came to Jericho. At this city, the second 
largest in Judea, the records of Jesus’ ministry outside 
of Jerusalem are brought to a close with an account of 
cures of two men, one morally and the other physically 
blind, Zacchaeus the publican and Bartimaeus the beggar. 
Mark tells us that ‘‘he left Jericho with his disciples and 
a considerable crowd.” The publicity given by these 


88 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


incidents no doubt augmented the throng that followed 
him to Jerusalem. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. Burton and Mathews, Life of Christ, pp. 87-97, 109-218. 
. Kent, Life and Teaching of Jesus, pp. 84-92, 216-49. 

. Robinson, St. Mark’s Life of Jesus, pp. 35-97. 

. Barton, Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 265-311. 

. Bousset, Jesus, pp. 59-70, 166-80. 

. Khees, Life of Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 101-5, 118-65. 

. Weiss, Life of Christ, Vol. III, chaps. iii, iv, vi, xii. 

. Farrar, Life of Christ, xxiii, xxx-xxxvi, xlii-xliv. 


comr Am PW DN 


CHAPTER VI 


THE TRAGEDY 


THE PASSION WEEK 


1. The Triumphal Entry 
Mark 11:1-11; Matt. 21:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; Zech. 
9:9 
2. Conflict with the Religious Leaders 
Mark 11:15—12:40; Matt. 21:12—23:37; Luke 19:45— 
20:47 
3. The Plot and Preparation 
Mark 14:1-31; Luke 8:2, 3; 22:1-38; Matt. 26:1-35; 
I Cor.'11: 23-25 
4. The Arrest 
Mark 14:32-51; Luke 22:39-53; Matt. 26: 36-56 
5. The Trial 
Luke 22:54—-23:25; Mark 14:53—15:20; Matt. 26:57— 
27:31; John 18:12—109: 16 | 
6. The Execution 
Mark 15:21-47; Luke 23:26-56; Matt. 27:32-66; John 
19: 16-42 


Attention has been called to the fragmentary nature 
of the records of the life of Jesus. The beginning of 
his public ministry at Capernaum is given in detail 
probably because that was Peter’s home and these first 
days were naturally strongly impressed on his memory. 
After this only isolated events are mentioned, especially 
during the period of wandering after leaving Galilee, 
which probably occupied several months. Only occa- 
sional glimpses are given of the journey to Jerusalem. 

The last week, however, from the time of arrival in 
Jerusalem is very full and detailed. The events of each 
day arerecorded. The reasons for this fulness and detail 


89 


go THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


are obvious. The events of this last week occurred in a 
large city where there were many interested witnesses. 
It was the home of John Mark, the author of the first 
complete record that has come to us. While but a 
youth at that time, he was in all probability an eye- 
witness of most of the events. Jesus’ headquarters in 
Jerusalem were at his house. These last days, too, 
were of the greatest interest to the later church. There 
was an intense strain on the disciples. The details 
were so vivid they could not be forgotten. 


I. THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY 


When Jesus with his followers, of whom there were 
by this time a considerable number, arrived at Bethany, 
a village about two miles from Jerusalem, he sent two 
disciples on before him into the village to get an ass’s 
colt. Bethany was the home of Mary and Martha and 
their brother, Lazarus, where he had often visited. 
Probably it was to this home, which he knew well, that 
he sent for the colt. On this animal he rode into 
Jerusalem. 

There is a passage in one of the prophets with which 
Jesus was undoubtedly, familiar, which describes the 
entry of the Messiah into Jerusalem as follows: 


Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! 
Shout, O Daughter of Jerusalem! 
See, your King is coming to you. 

He is just and brings salvation; 
Humble and riding upon an ass, 
Upon the foal of a beast of burden. 


These words expressed Jesus’ conception of the Messiah 
as humble and unostentatious. From his actions during 


THE TRAGEDY gt 


the week that followed we may understand that by 
entering Jerusalem in this manner he meant to declare 
publicly his messiahship to those who might understand, 
and in this way to begin to bring matters to an issue. 
His teaching of the principles of the Kingdom was now 
complete. It was time to take his place as Messiah 
and abide by the result. Jerusalem was thronged with 
visitors from all lands who came for the great Passover 
festival. Many of these probably had heard of the 
prophet from Nazareth and were anxious to see him. 

To the people of that time the ass was a symbol of 
peace, the horse a symbol of war. By riding on an ass 
instead of a horse he declared himself to be the Messiah 
of Zechariah’s prophecy, but not of popular expectation; 
a Messiah of peace, not a military leader with political 
ambitions. The people, of course, as a whole, and this 
was true even of some of his disciples, did not get the 
full significance of this action. They crowded around 
him enthusiastically and hailed him as ‘the Son of 
David” who was coming to set up the messianic King- 
dom. 

Before this time he had rebuked anyone who at- 
tempted to call him Messiah, but now he tacitly ac- 
cepted the title. The common people were delighted 
and the Pharisees chagrined. However, he took care 
to give no occasion to anyone to suppose he was going 
to be a military leader. When he reached the Temple all 
he did was to dismount without ostentation, look around 
on the preparation, and go quietly back to Bethany. 
It was probably late in the evening when he arrived 
and he did not consider it safe to trust himself in the 
city after night. He knew that the pharisaic leaders 


Q2 ‘THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


were seeking an opportunity to seize him when he was 
not protected by the presence of the people. 


2. CONFLICT WITH THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS 


What was in Jesus’ mind with reference to the attitude 
which the Jewish leaders had taken is seen from a 
parable which was suggested by coming across a barren 
fig tree as he was leaving Bethany the next morning. 
Like the fig tree the nation had been given every chance; 
time after time it had been cultivated and enriched 
by God’s messengers, and time after time God had 
sought from it in vain the fruits of righteousness. The 
day of grace had passed. The time of reckoning had 
come: “Cut it down; why should it take up space ?” 

Doubtless, on previous visits to the Temple, he had 
noticed the traffic that was going on in its outer court 
in the name of religion, and he may well have foreseen 
that if he went to Jerusalem he could not avoid open 
conflict with the priests. This may account for his 
previous allusions to a coming conflict with the Jewish 
authorities which might result in his death. He well 
knew the temper and unscrupulous character of the men 
with whom he would have to deal. 

The occasion of the incident commonly called the 
“Cleansing of the Temple” was, of course, his indigna- 
tion at the corrupt practices permitted and in fact 
participated in by the Temple authorities, who be- 
longed to the Sadducean party. The noise made by 
the sacrificial animals exposed for sale, the babel of 
voices of the money-changers, and the general hubbub of 
merchandising robbed the people of their rightful privi- 
lege of quiet worship in their sacred Temple, “a place of 


THE TRAGEDY 93 


prayer for all the nations.” It is quite probable, too, 
that the poor who had to buy doves because “ their means 
did not suffice for a lamb,” and the foreign Jew who had 
to exchange Roman coins for the Hebrew half-shekel with 
which the Temple tax was paid, were overcharged. In 
more ways than one the ‘“‘Father’s house” had become 
‘Ca den of robbers.”’ x) 

His action this morning was undoubtedly pre- 
meditated. 


When they came to Jerusalem and he entered the Temple, 
he began to drive out those who were buying and selling; he 
upset the tables of the money-changers and the stalls of those 
who sold doves and would not allow anyone to carry a vessel 
through the Temple. He gave them instruction, also. “Is it 
not written,’ he asked, “my house shall be called a house of 
prayer for all nations? You have made it a den of robbers.” 


In these words we have a striking picture of Jesus’ 
forceful personality. He exhibited the flashing eye 
and fiery indignation of the ancient prophets and the 
majesty of a natural king of men. The time and place 
for this well-merited rebuke was well chosen. In the 
intense excitement of the moment no one thought of 
offering opposition. ‘The menials were panic-stricken, 
their masters were dazed. In the presence of the people 
their hypocrisy and avarice were laid bare and they 
had no defense. They saw that Jesus had the people 
with him and ‘‘they were afraid of him.” ‘They could 
not discover what was to be done, for all the people 
hung upon his words.” 

In making this attack on the selfishness of the leaders 
of the people in sacrificing the right of the people to 
worship to their own commercialism, Jesus faced his 
deadliest enemy, and he knew that he risked his life. 


94. THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Although by reason of his superlative tact he was 
immediately successful and his enemies were completely 
discomfited, yet the fires of opposition were kindled 
afresh and were only quenched by his blood. This 
incident illustrates a phase of his character not often 
noted. He was not always ‘‘meek and lowly,” but when 
occasion demanded he became the very embodiment 
of righteous indignation. 

The next day the Temple authorities, having some- 
what recovered from the shock of this surprise attack, 
came to him “as he was walking within the Temple” with 
the inevitable challenge: ‘‘What authority have you for 
acting in this way; who gave you authority to act in 
this way ?”’ In his characteristic manner, Jesus answered 
their question by asking another more incisive: ‘‘What 
about the baptism of John, was it from heaven or from 
man?’ If they should answer: “From heaven,’ they 
would convict themselves before the people of insincerity 
in not accepting John’s message, and they dared not 
alienate the people, who believed that John was a 
prophet, by saying that his ministry was without divine 
authority. 

Jesus’ intention was not merely to silence them by 
the dilemma; it was the most forcible way of pointing 
out to the people their insensibility to divine truth. 
They assumed that the right to rebuke wickedness in 
high places must be authenticated by a “‘sign”—an 
external, spectacular, supernatural portent. He said in 
substance: “What about John’s work? He gave no 
sign.” They did not dare to say that John was an 
impostor. They consequently had to concede that a 
prophet’s authority was in his message, and did not 


THE TRAGEDY 95 


require external authentication, and admitting it in 
respect to John, they could not deny it to Jesus. Thus 
he answered their question in a very significant way, 
affirming an important principle in regard to religious 
authority. 

The inconsistency and hypocrisy of these “blind 
leaders of the blind”? Jesus went on further to exhibit 
in three trenchant parables, “The Two Sons,” “The 
Wicked Vinedressers” and ‘The Marriage Feast.” He 
adopted his characteristic method of compelling them to 
see their glaring sin in order most effectively to warn 
them against the fatal sin of rejecting God’s final mes- 
sage. They were like the disobedient son who paid only 
lip service to his father, the wicked vinedressers who 
killed their master’s son when he came to demand only 
his father’s just dues, and the invited guests who rudely 
disregarded the invitation and ill-treated the messengers. 
The comparison was obvious. By their rejection of 
God’s message they were shutting themselves out of the 
Kingdom. 

Vicious attempts were now made by the various 
parties to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people by 
putting questions to him which he could not answer, or 
if he should answer would lead him into conflict with 
the Law of Moses, or with the Roman authorities. 
All of these captious questions he used, with consum- 
mate skill, to make still clearer the principles of his 
spiritual Kingdom. 

The belief of the Sadducees that there is no ‘‘spirit”’ 
and that, therefore, man does not live after death, which 
they endeavored to support by their question about 
the much-married woman, intimating that the pharisaic 


96 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


theory of the resurrection would involve polyandry in 
the world to come, he answered by repudiating the 
pharisaic theory that the future life is simply the present 
physically conditioned life somewhat glorified, and still 
more fundamentaily by an appeal to the depth of God’s 
love for men which could not suffer his beloved to perish. 
He reminded them of the vital message they had long 
since forgotten, that ‘‘ God is not the God of dead people, 
but of living.” The scribe’s question about “the 
greatest commandment” gave him the opportunity to 
point out the real, guiding principle of God’s govern- 
ment, the summation of ‘‘all the Law and the Prophets” 
—love, which means toward God reverence and glad 
obedience, and toward men concern for their well-being 
equally with our own. 

As has been indicated, the purpose of their questions 
was to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people by getting 
him to entangle himself in his answers. The shrewdest 
question, however, was that of the Herodians: ‘Is it 
right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” If he answered 
with a categorical affirmative he would offend the people, 
and if he answered negatively the Herodians would at 
once accuse him of treason before the Roman authorities. 
By his famous answer, “Give Caesar what belongs to 
Caesar, give God what belongs to God,” he not only 
confounded his captious questioners but enunciated the 
far-reaching positive principle that payment of real 
debts to one’s fellow-men—especially payment for the 
support of government—in no way conflicts with or 
takes the place of fulfilment of his obligations to God. 

When he had silenced all parties and ‘‘no one ventured 
to put any more questions to him,” Jesus turned upon 


THE TRAGEDY 97 


them with the most severe denunciations that were ever 
uttered by any prophet or reformer. While the ‘‘seven 
woes” reported by the First Gospel may include utter- 
ances delivered on other occasions, according to this 
author’s custom, they, no doubt, express the culmination 
of his indignation against the “scribes and Pharisees” 
as the most guilty of all Israel’s leaders. They had 
risen above the selfish materialism of the Sadducees, and 
because of their greater enlightenment and their professed 
devotion to God’s service they should have given a 
more attentive ear to the principles of the Kingdom. 

Against these “blind guides” who had proved false to 
the ideals of the Kingdom, Jesus directed his intense 
denunciation of their hollow pretense of righteousness. 
The sixth woe is typical: ‘“‘Woe to you,” he cried, “you 
irreligious scribes and Pharisees! You are like tombs 
whitewashed; they look comely on the outside, but 
inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all manner 
of impurity. So to men you seem just, but inside you 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” 


3. THE PLOT AND PREPARATION 


The two great religious-political parties now united 
against Jesus, recognizing him as a common enemy. 
The Pharisees had opposed him from the beginning 
because of his teaching, which was uncompromisingly 
antagonistic to theirs. ‘The Sadducees or priestly aris- 
tocratic party he had now offended by his action in 
cleansing the Temple of its merchandising, and so interfer- 
ing with one of the chief sources of their gains. 

These two parties now made common cause with the 
Herodians and formed a plot to get hold of him when he 
should be away from the people. They were afraid to 


98 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


arrest him publicly for “that would mean a popular riot.” 
Jesus was well aware of their enmity and knew it would be 
dangerous to permit them to get in touch with him when 
away from the people. Accordingly, every evening after 
teaching in the Temple all day, he went with his disciples 
across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives and 
spent the night in seclusion at an olive orchard called 
Gethsemane, probably the home of a friend. 

While Jesus’ discerning eye had no doubt long before 
this seen that one of his disciples was dissatisfied and — 
disloyal, his unconquerable optimism and faith in human 
nature kept alive the hope that he would heed his 
warnings and get a sufficient grasp of the principles of 
the Kingdom to keep him with the others on the narrow 
path of duty and honor. No doubt also Judas had some 
good traits of character that led to his selection as one 
of Jesus’ special band of disciples. If the tradition that 
he was treasurer of the disciples is trustworthy, it 
indicates the recognition of some business ability. 
There must have been at times large sums of money to 
be handled, for Jesus’ company of followers sometimes 
probably numbered hundreds. The money for their 
support was contributed by wealthy women whom he 
had healed like ‘Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of 
Chuza, the steward of Herod, Susanna, and a number of 
others, who ministered to him out of their means.” 

Judas was evidently ambitious and fond of money. 
He had followed Jesus, thinking that he was going to be 
a king, and expecting to be made ‘‘ Lord High Treasurer,” 
as the sons of Zebedee hoped also to have still higher 
offices. He undoubtedly felt aggrieved at Jesus’ refusal 
to accept the overtures of those who wanted to make 


THE TRAGEDY 99 


him a king, and now after following him to Jerusalem 
in the hope that at last he would declare himself and set 
up the Kingdom, he was bitterly disappointed at what 
he thought to be Jesus’ supreme folly in condemning and 
completely alienating the religious and political leaders. 
He probably determined to force his hand, to compel him 
to use his power in order to deliver himself from his 
enemies, and so to take his rightful position as the 
Messiah. In the event of failure, which would disprove 
his claims, Judas may have felt that he would have the 
satisfaction of revenge for the imposition practiced 
upon him. 

His final decision may have been reached at a supper 
given to Jesus and his disciples “‘in the house of Simon 
the leper” at Bethany, when his friend Mary, the sister 
of Martha and Lazarus, “‘came up with an alabaster 
flask of pure nard perfume, which had cost a great sum” 
—three hundred days’ wages of a laborer, or about a 
thousand dollars’ purchasing power in our money at the 
present time. ‘‘She broke the flask and poured the 
perfume over his head.”’ This was probably her declara- 
tion of his messiahship. She was annointing him king 
over Israel. Some of the disciples were indignant. 
“What is the use of wasting perfume like this,” they said, 
“why not sell it and give to the poor?” But Jesus said: 
“Let her alone, why are you annoying her? She has 
done what she could—she has anticipated the perfuming 
of my body for burial.” ‘The earliest gospel goes on to 
say: ‘Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the 
high priests to betray him to them. ‘They were delighted 
to hear it and promised to pay him for it. Meantime 
he sought a good opportunity for betraying him.” 


100 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Jesus now had to take precautions to prevent his 
betrayal before he had an opportunity to have a final 
conference with his disciples, so he took care to select a 
room for their last meal without the knowledge of Judas. 
“Accordingly he sent two of his disciples, telling them: 
‘Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a 
water-jar; follow him, and whatever house he goes into, 
tell the owner that the Teacher says, ‘Where is my 
room, where I may eat with my disciples?’” The 
question of the disciples shows that he had not disclosed 
to them the place of meeting, and the question put to 
the owner of the house, ‘‘ Where is my room ?” indicates 
that he had made previous arrangements for the use 
of the room. The carrying of a jar of water by a man. 
a task usually done by a woman, was probably the sign 
agreed upon for recognizing the house. It was probably, 
as tradition claims, the home of John Mark, which we 
find was used as a meeting-place by the disciples after 
the Crucifixion. This would explain the fulness of detail 
at this point in the narrative. 

In this house in the “large room upstairs” Jesus 
and his disciples assembled. Judas was present, and 
from Jesus’ warning it would appear that he still had 
hopes that he might repent of his evil purpose. The 
oldest account of this Last Supper is given by Paul in 
his First Letter to the Corinthians, who lays the emphasis 
on its memorial aspect: 


Jesus took a loaf and after thanking God he broke it saying, 
“This means my body, broken for you; do this in memory of 
me.” In the same way he took the cup after supper saying, 
“This cup means the new covenant ratified by my blood; as often 
as you drink it, do it in memory of me.” 


THE TRAGEDY IOI 


He felt sure that this would be the last time he would 
eat with his little band of faithful followers, and he took 
the opportunity by this acted parable to point out to 
them the significance of his death in such a way that they 
would remember it afterward. 

When he spoke of the wine as representing his 
“‘covenant-blood shed for many” he intended that they 
should understand that his death would help to bring 
God and man together, for the disciples would take the 
word ‘‘covenant”’ in the Old Testament sense of a 
solemn pledge of relationship between God and man 
ratified by shedding the blood of a sacrificial victim. 
It was natural that he should express the desire to be 
remembered when they should meet again after his death 
around the table. It was a natural expression of the 
loyalty of the early Christians that they should make the 
observance of this Supper a perpetual memorial of the 
friendship, teaching, and self-sacrifice of their great 
teacher. This whole narrative implies that Jesus now 
looked upon his death as inevitable. 


4. THE ARREST 


After the supper and a conference with his disciples 
in which he gave them farewell encouragement and 
admonitions, the little party went out through the Kidron 
Valley to the Hill of Olives where they had spent the 
nights since coming to Jerusalem. Judas left them 
probably as soon as he learned that they would pass the 
night at the usual place. When Jesus noticed his 
absence he would know that the attempt to seize him 
might soon be expected. He could now have escaped 
if he had so desired but. he went on with his disciples 


102 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


to Gethsemane, and there occurred the noted scene of 
anguish in view of the coming catastrophe. 

Jesus evidently had a human dread and shrinking 
from death and craving for human sympathy. Nodoubt 
the rejection of his message by his people was more bitter 
than even the anticipation of the physical suffering. 
As in all previous crises of his life, so now in this final 
crisis he sought and found strength in communion with 
his Father. As in the wilderness after his call, and 
across the lake in the “‘lonely spot”’ after the multitudes 
had tried to make him a king, and on the Mountain of 
Transfiguration near Caesarea Philippi after his rejection 
by the people of Galilee, so now in the garden of 
Gethsemane, facing the immediate imminence of the 
final tragedy, he wrestled with the temptation to save 
his life at the expense of his mission—wrestled and 
conquered. With the conviction that “the cup” would 
not be taken away came complete submission to his 
Father’s will. 

Judas, who had slipped away and gone to the chief 
priests to reveal the hiding place of his master, now came 
through the night, guiding a number of Temple guards 
and servants of the high priest. He pointed out Jesus 
by kissing him, a form of greeting almost as common as 
our handshake. ‘‘Then they laid hands on him and 
seized him.” He made no resistance, and, as he had 
anticipated, his disciples “forsook him and fled, all of 
them.’’ 

The naive reference to the ‘‘young man” who 
“followed him with only a linen sheet thrown around 
his body, but when the men seized him he fled away 
naked leaving the sheet behind him,” in all probability 


THE TRAGEDY 103 


refers to the author of our earliest narrative, John Mark 
himself. He had probably become much interested in 
the wonderful teacher, and on this night his curiosity 
had been aroused and he had followed the disciples to 
the hiding place. With the natural impulsiveness of 
youth, he followed the crowd when the disciples fled, 
and when one of the arresting party grabbed at him he 
escaped by sacrificing his hastily donned attire. 


5. THE TRIAL 


Jesus was first hurried to the house of the high priest, 
who seems to have been the leader of the conspirators 
because of the fact that he was chiefly concerned in the 
policy of extortion and hypocrisy which the bold 
Nazarene had se scathingly condemned. Here in the 
courtyard Jesus was held a prisoner until morning, and 
given a preliminary, informal examination before some 
members of the Sanhedrin hastily got together in order 
to find some evidence against him in preparation for a 
formal trial before the Sanhedrin after sunrise, which 
was as soon as it could legally meet. 

At this private examination, which was illegal 
according to the rabbinical code, as no charge had been 
preferred, an attempt was made to get Jesus to incrimi- 
nate himself, but he refused to give testimony. His 
answer when questioned about his teaching: “I have 
spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in the 
synagogue and in the Temple where all Jews gather; 
I have said nothing in secret. Why ask me? Ask my 
hearers what I have said to them; they know what I 
said’’—was a demand for witnesses in accordance with 
the regular legal procedure of the Jews. 


104 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


At dawn a hurried session of the Sanhedrin was held 
and efforts made to procure evidence against him, with 
the twofold purpose of condemning him in the Sanhedrin 
and of securing an indictment on charges that would be 
recognized by the Roman authorities. In order to 
secure an indictment, according to Jewish legal procedure, 
the testimony of the two witnesses must agree. If 
there was not agreement in every particular the prisoner 
must be discharged. As the conspirators failed to 
produce this concurrent testimony of two witnesses Jesus 
should now have been released, but instead of releasing 
him the high priest tried to make him testify against 
himself, a practice as illegal in the Jewish courts of that 
time as it is in ours today. 

They asked him if he were the Messiah (king) in 
order to catch him for accusation before the Roman 
authorities. His answer was characteristic of his 
answers before: “If I tell you, you will not believe and 
if I ask you, you will not answer.” He thus recognized 
the impassable gulf between his conception of the Messiah 
and theirs. He then went on to express his conviction 
that God would vindicate him. “After this,” he said, 
“the Son of man will be seated at God’s right hand of 
power.” At this they asked him if he were the Son of 
God. His answer-—‘ You say that I am’’~-was non- 
committal, simply passing the question back to them as 
if we should say: “It is you who are saying it, not I,” 
but his refusal to deny they took for assent because of 
their anxiety to get him to incriminate himself, and 
accordingly condemned him on the charge of blasphemy. 

As the Sanhedrin did not have authority to impose 
the death penalty they then brought him before Pilate, 


THE TRAGEDY 105 


the Roman governor, on the charge of treason in the 
three counts that he was a political agitator, that he 
tried to prevent the people from paying tribute to Rome, 
and that he claimed to be king himself. ‘“‘We have 
discovered this fellow,’ they said, ‘‘perverting our 
nation, forbidding tribute being paid to Caesar and 
alleging that he himself is Christ, a king.” These 
charges were presented in this form because they knew 
that the Romans would not recognize blasphemy as a 
crime. Pilate saw through their fanaticism but had 
to give them audience in order to pacify them. His 
position as governor of Judea was not easy. He no 
doubt felt that if he gave occasion for a Jewish rebellion 
he would be recalled. After questioning Jesus he 
concluded that there was nothing but fanaticism in the 
charges, and decided to release him. 

The chief priests, however, had stirred up the people 
to insist on condemnation. The fickle mob turned 
against the ‘Messiah’? who could not defend himself 
against the Romans, and 

They shouted one and all, “Away with him!” Again Pilate 
addressed them for he wanted to release Jesus, but they roared, 
“To the cross, to the cross with him!” “But what crime has he 
committed? I have found nothing about him that deserves 
death; so I will release him with a scourging.” But they loudly 
urged their demand that he should be crucified and their shouts 
carried the day—Pilate gave sentence that their demand was to 
be carried out. 

6. THE EXECUTION 

The Roman cross consisted of two pieces of timber, 
one about 8 feet long fixed upright in the ground as a 
post, the other a rough cross-bar hung or set in a socket 
on or near the top of the post. The post remained 


106 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


permanently fixed in the ground for constant use, as 
in the case of the modern gallows. The victim was 
usually compelled to carry the heavy cross-bar to which 
sometimes his arms were bound to the place of execution 
where his hands were nailed to it and it was then hoisted 
up and hung to the post. 

Jesus’ exhausted physical condition is seen from 
the fact that he was unable to carry the heavy piece 
of timber, and that ‘‘they forced Simon, a Cyrenian, 
who was passing on his way from the country (the 
father of Alexander and Rufus) to carry his cross.” 
Evidently Alexander and Rufus were disciples living at 
the time when our earliest gospel was written, and 
this reference is due to the forced participation of their 
father, Simon, in the dreadful tragedy. This incident 
gives a vivid touch of realism to the scene. 

The account of the death of Jesus lacks the detail 
that is characteristic of the preceding events in this week 
of tragedy. This is what might be expected from the 
fact that all his disciples had fled. Only a few of the 
faithful women who had followed him from Galilee 
watched the scene from a safe distance. It is not likely 
that Simon of Cyrene stayed by after carrying his forced 
burden to the place of execution, as he would be afraid 
of further indignity. Afterward when he was converted 
to Christianity it would be his proud boast that he had 
carried the cross of his Master. It was customary to give 
the victim a narcotic drink, “wine mixed with bitters,” 
provided by the wealthy women of Jerusalem, to deaden 
consciousness before crucifixion. It was characteristic 
of Jesus that he refused this drink as he no doubt wished 
to preserve his mind unclouded to the last, and, if it 


THE TRAGEDY 107 


must be done, to drink to the dregs the cup of suffering 
the Father had not thought it best to remove. 

The victim, according to Roman custom, wore 
suspended from his neck on his way to the place of 
crucifixion a tablet upon which was inscribed the name 
of his crime. This tablet was fixed above his body on 
the cross. In the case of Jesus this inscription was 
“The King of the Jews.” This shows that he was 
condemned by the Roman authorities on the charge 
that he was a political agitator, who claimed to be a 
king as his accusers had alleged. This tablet, the 
carrying of the heavy timber of the cross, the crucifixion 
in company with two highwaymen, all testify to the 
fact that Jesus’ execution was that of the common 
criminal of the lowest class. This horrible death 
employed by Roman cruelty for slaves and the lowest 
criminals undoubtedly had the immediate effect of 
overwhelming the disciples with shame and confusion. 
To the Jewish mind crucifixion was the most terrible 
symbol of the curse of God. 

Jesus was nailed to the cross about nine o’clock in 
the morning and endured the awful agony until about 
three in the afternoon. Usually the victim hung on 
the cross for several days. Jesus’ death in such a 
comparatively brief time was probably caused by the 
agonizing experiences through which he had previously 
passed. The scourging itself with leathern thongs 
loaded with lead and iron sometimes produced death. 
His “loud cry” in Aramaic: “My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me?” uttered just before his death 
may have been heard by the women or reported to the 
disciples afterward by ‘“‘some of the bystanders.” 


108 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


These words expressing an idea so foreign to later 
Christian belief bear the genuine stamp of historical 
trustworthiness. It is natural that at such a time he 
should use words learned in childhood. While they 
show that he still maintained his unswerving faith in the 
Father, they give some idea of his terrible agony and the 
sense of loneliness that came to him with the conviction 
that he would not deliver him from death. Even to this 
time he had not given up hope that the Kingdom might 
be established without this supreme sacrifice. The 
“loud cry” with which he expired indicates that he died 
of “‘a broken heart”—the mental agony of a great spirit 
at the realization of the complete rejection of his ideal for 
his people—his life-message, ‘‘The Kingdom of God.” 

Even in his death Jesus gave evidence ot his wonderful 
power to attach people to him. ‘‘There were some 
women watching from a distance, among them Mary of 
Magdala, Mary the mother of James the younger and of 
Joses, and Salome, women who had followed him from 
Galilee and waited on him, besides a number of other 
women who had accompanied him to Jerusalem.” 
It is to be noted that James the younger and Joses are 
referred to as being disciples living at the time the author | 
wrote his narrative. ‘‘Even a member of the Sanhedrin, 
Joseph of Arimathea, a counsellor of good position,” 
who had no doubt been a sympathetic listener to Jesus’ 
words about the Kingdom, had the courage to ask for the 
body and give it burial in his private rock-hewed tomb. 
The faithful women did not give up their heart-rending 
watch until the lacerated body was laid to rest. ‘‘ Mary 
of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses noted where 
he was laid.” 


or AM BW HD 


THE TRAGEDY 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. Burton and Mathews, Life of Christ, pp. 219-72. 
. Kent, Life and Teaching of Jesus, pp. 250-97. 

. Robinson, St. Mark’s Life of Jesus, pp. 98-129. 
. Rhees, Life of Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 167-200. 

. Barton, Jesus of Nazareth, pp. 316-89. 

. Weiss, Life of Christ, III, 273-372. 

. Farrar, Life of Christ, chaps. liv, lx, lxi. 

. Holtzmann, Life of Jesus, pp. 392-491. 


109 


CHAPTER VII 


THE NEW BEGINNING 


HOW THE DISCIPLES MET THE SITUATION CON. 
FRONTING THEM AFTER THE DEATH 
OF JESUS 


1. The Flight into Galilee 
Mark 14: 27, 28, 50; 15:40-47; 16:7; Matt. 26:31, 32, 56; 
28: 16-20; cf. John, chap. 21 

2. The Conviction of Resurrection 
I Cor. 15:1-8; Gal. 1:16; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:34; 
Actsiz:3 

3. The Return to Jesusalem 
Acts 1:4, 8-14; 2:1-21, 46; cf. Luke 24353 

4. The First Community 
Acts 1:15, 23-253 2:41-47; 4°23-37; 5:12-16 


I. THE FLIGHT INTO GALILEE 


‘Then they left him and fled, all of them.” These 
brief words from the oldest gospel tell the pathetic tale 
of Jesus’ desertion by his most favored followers. This 
statement is enforced by the report of his warning at the 
close of the Last Supper: “You will all stumble and fall 
away, for it is written: ‘I will strike at the Shepherd 
and the sheep will be scattered.’”? In spite of whatever 
warnings he may have given them of what they might 
expect in Jerusalem, his arrest and Crucifixion were a 
terrible “stumbling block,” and for a brief time at least 
they lost faith and hope. They were completely stunned 
by the direful calamity that had befallen their beloved 
Master, and their only coherent thought was evidently 
to seek safety in immediate flight. 


Ito 


THE NEW BEGINNING III 


If any evidence is needed beyond the simple graphic 
statement mentioned, it may be found in the fact that 
his burial was left toa stranger. The disciples evidently 
did not have the courage to take care of his body even 
if they had lingered on the outskirts of the crowd until 
the fatal issue. This failure of the disciples is most 
significant when we understand the attitude of the people 
of the time toward the burial of the dead. 

The obligation of burial was exceedingly binding 
among the Jews. The worst fate that could befall a 
Jew was to be denied burial in the tombs of his fathers. 
When one wanted to utter the bitterest curse upon his 
enemy he would say, as did Goliath to David: “I will 
give your body to the birds of the heavens and to the 
beasts of the field.””, David could think of nothing worse, 
so he replied: “‘I will give the dead bodies of the host of 
Philistines to the birds of the heavens and the wild 
beasts of the earth.”” When a Jew spoke of his death he 
invariably mentioned his burial and made provision for 
it. The disciples of John the Baptist, although their 
master had been put to death by a public executioner 
at the command of the king, “‘went and got his body 
and laid it in a tomb.” 

In view of this attitude toward burial, the disciples 
of Jesus must have been utterly terrified and confounded, 
or they would have performed the last sacred rites for 
their Master. The terrible and disgraceful death by 
crucifixion undoubtedly completely stunned their faith. 
They had expected that God would deliver their Master 
out of the hands of his enemies, but God had deserted 
him. Then he certainly could not have been the 
Messiah, the Son of God, as he claimed. There was 


I12 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


nothing for them to do but to get out of danger as soon 
as possible, to flee from the place where all their hopes 
had been so terribly shattered. 

The later gospels, giving devout expression to several 
views of the nature of the Resurrection, current when they 
were written, relate appearances of Jesus in Jerusalem. 
These appearances seem to be assigned to the first 
Sunday after the Crucifixion, but a comparison of the 
last chapter of Luke’s Gospel with the first fourteen 
verses of his second treatise, the Acts of the Apostles, 
indicates that they belong to a later period, probably 
toward the close of the ‘‘forty days” to which he refers. 
However these appearances may be accounted for, the 
oldest gospel records imply a very early departure of 
the principal disciples. to Galilee. 

The conclusion of the Gospel of Mark—our earliest 
source—has been lost, but before the break there is an 
intimation that the disciples went immediately to Galilee, 
and the First Gospel, which used this source as a basis, 
after giving the account of the visit of the women to the 
tomb, makes this statement: ‘Now the eleven disciples 
went to Galilee,” and places here the only appearance of 
Jesus to them after the Crucifixion. A fragment of the 
Gospel of Peter recently discovered speaks of Peter as 
having returned to Galilee after the Crucifixion and 
having resumed fishing with Andrew and Levi, son of 
Alpheus, and this is confirmed by an account preserved 
in the Fourth Gospel. This was the natural thing for 
the disciples to do when they came to the conclusion 
that it was all over—all their hopes and dreams of the 
messianic Kingdom. They were not accustomed to the 
city. They had come only for the Passover. It was a 


THE NEW BEGINNING 113 


dangerous place. There was nothing else to do but to 
get back to the home country and take up the old 
routine of life again. 


2. THE CONVICTION OF RESURRECTION 


Here in Galilee in all probability occurred the 
appearances of Jesus to his disciples that are enumerated 
by Paul, who gives the earliest account that has come to 
us. Writing to the Corinthians, about twenty-five years 
after the Crucifixion he says: 

First and foremost, I passed on to you what I myself received, 
namely, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the 
scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose on the third day in 
accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, 
then to the Twelve; after that he appeared to over five hundred 
brothers all at once, the majority of whom survive to this day, 
though some have died; after that, he appeared to James, then 
to all the apostles, and finally he appeared to myself, this so-called 
“abortion” of an apostle. 


Whatever one may think of the nature of the Resur- 
rection, of the facts there can be no doubt. Nothing but 
an experience which gave them an unquestionable 
conviction that they had seen their Master alive can 
account for the extraordinary change that came over the 
disciples within a few days after the Crucifixion. These 
men who fled precipitately, who were so terrified that 
they left the burial of their Master to a stranger, who so 
completely lost faith and hope as to go back to the old 
life and ordinary occupations of the days before they 
heard the thrilling message of the coming of the Kingdom 
and the King, these men whose very leader, the impetuous 
Peter, denied that he had ever seen the Nazarene—a 
few days afterward under that same leadership, not 


II4 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


following with fear and trembling as before, not scattered 
as sheep without a shepherd, but with absolute faith 
and fearlessness in the presence of the political and 
religious conspirators who had caused their Master’s 
death, ready to die if need be for his cause, confidently 
proclaimed him as the Messiah in face of the fact that 
he had suffered death on that very charge. 

The cause of this marvelous transformation is by no 
means uncertain. It was proclaimed by them in every 
utterance and in every situation. It was the absolute, 
unswerving conviction that their Master was alive, that 
death had not been able to hold him, that he was still 
their leader. But with this conviction came an addi- 
tional item of faith which was all-important for a new 
religion. If God had delivered him from death, then 
he must be what he claimed, the Messiah. His Resur- 
rection was regarded by them as an absolute demonstra- 
tion of this potent fact. Nothing could ever again shake 
their faith. 

It was natural that Peter should be the first to have 
this glad consciousness of his Master’s presence, as is 
indicated in Paul’s definite statement, and that he should 
recite his experience to the Twelve and that they should 
be the next to be convinced. It was natural, too, that 
these appearances should have been in Galilee in the 
midst of the scenes of his greatest activity, where he 
had walked and talked with his disciples, and warned 
them of what might be expected to happen in Jerusalem, 
and tried to prepare them to keep their faith even in the - 
time of the extreme tragedy by the confident assurance 
that he would ultimately triumph. Here they recalled 
his words of confidence that, although he might suffer 


THE NEW BEGINNING IIS 


and die, he would still triumph and complete his messianic 
mission, and their panic of distrust and despair changed 
to faith and intense expectation. | 

In the Fourth Gospel is preserved a beautiful picture 
of Peter’s awakening from his brief period of distrust 
and despair. Long before daybreak, with his two closest 
friends, James and John, and several other disciples, he 
put out from the familiar shore in the boat, in which so 
often Jesus had been the chief passenger, and fished in 
the familiar waters of the Lake of Galilee. There, in 
the stillness of the night, undisturbed even by any success 
in catching fish, his mind naturally reverted to his lost 
Master who so often had sat in the boat and talked so 
wonderfully of the messianic Kingdom. He remembered 
his confidence in his mission and its ultimate triumph. 
Surely it could not be true that death could hold him, 
that his glorious mission had ended in failure. Now 
dawn was breaking and he remembered how the Great 
Teacher had prepared breakfast for his hungry followers 
at just such a time and in such a place. His faith 
returned. ‘“‘ Jesus was standing on the beach!” 

The impetuous disciple jumped from the boat and 
waded to the shore to meet his Master, and heard the 
beloved accents of his voice: ‘Simon, son of John, do 
you love me more than the others do?” ‘Why, Lord, 
you know I love you,” came the quick response from his 
heart. Again the words of his Master: ‘‘Then feed my 
sheep.”” Three times came the searching question, three 
times the answer of faith, three times the commission. 
Yes, he realized that he loved more than the others and 
he answered the call to leadership. Never from that 
time, in whatever danger or stress, did he doubt that he 


116 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


had seen his Master risen from the dead, and that 
conviction his enthusiasm imparted to the others, and 
they too regained their faith. Again and again they 
“saw the Lord.” He had “risen as he said.” This 
conviction soon spread to other disciples, and on one 
occasion as many as 500 of them at once were gathered 
together and weré convinced that Jesus stood in their 
midst. 

For this belief the disciples were not unprepared. 
Belief in the resurrection of exceptionally great prophets 
and leaders highly favored by God, like Enoch, Moses, 
and Elijah, was current among the Jews of this time. 
Our earliest gospel tells us that when “the name of 
Jesus had become well known, people said, ‘John the 
Baptizer has risen from the dead; that is why miraculous 
powers are working through him’; others said, ‘It .is 
Elijah,’ others again, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the old 
prophets.’ But when Herod heard of it he said, ‘John 
has risen, John, whom I beheaded.’” After _ Jesus’ 
resurrection the disciples began to search the writings 
of the prophets and soon became convinced that the 
resurrection of the Messiah was “according to the 
Scriptures” and so their faith in his messiahship was 
confirmed in the strongest manner. “This Jesus,” their 
spokesman is represented as saying later, “God raised 
from the dead, as we can all bear witness. ... . There- 
fore let all the house of Israel understand beyond a 
doubt that God has made him both Lord and Messiah.” 


3- THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM 


“The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to 
his Temple, even the messenger of the covenant in whom 


THE NEW BEGINNING Ti 


you delight.” ‘Day after day they resorted with one 
accord to the Temple and broke bread together in their 
own homes.” In these two texts, the first from the 
ancient prophecy of Malachi, the second from the account 
in Acts, of the doings of the disciples after the Resurrec- 
tion, is found the answer to the apparently perplexing 
problem why the disciples so soon returned to Jerusalem. 
The fact that God had raised Jesus from the dead was to 
them indubitable proof that he was the Messiah, and 
as such they believed in accordance with the current 
apocalyptic writings that he would immediately return 
in glory to Jerusalem to the Temple and set up his King- 
dom with spectacular and miraculous demonstration. 
Of course, they must be there to share his glory and 
receive their appointments. 

This belief explains the statement in Acts that in 
those first days they ‘“‘resorted daily with one accord to 
the Temple.” They expected the immediate return of 
their Master as the glorified Messiah and believed that 
he would come directly to the Temple. The fact that 
“Mary, the mother of Jesus, with his brothers was with 
them” is confirmatory of Paul’s statement, when, after 
mentioning Jesus’ appearance to Peter and then to the 
_ Twelve and to the 500 brethren, he says: “After that 
he appeared to James.” These appearances, as has 
been intimated, were in all probability in Galilee and that 
to James probably led to the conversion of his brothers 
who do not appear to have believed in his mission during 
his ministry. The whole family probably was now con- 
verted and accompanied the other disciples to Jerusalem. 

A new beginning of messianic consciousness and the 
nucleus of the future church was established when soon 


118 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


after their return to Jerusalem Peter called a meeting 
“of about a hundred and twenty persons all together” 
to select a successor to Judas in order that the symbolic 
number of twelve adopted by Jesus might remain intact. 
This is significant as indicating the idea of these earliest 
disciples that they composed the “remnant” that had 
remained true to Israel’s high calling. They constituted 
the true Israel and consequently the Twelve were repre- 
sentatives of the twelve tribes. Israel as a nation had 
forsaken Jehovah and could not claim his promises, but 
the prophets claimed that by virtue of a “remnant” thut 
had kept themselves from the general corruption, Israel 
was still God’s people. This “remnant,” though few, 
constituted the true Israel age after age. The disciples 
now believed that they were this remnant, and so the 
true Israel and the nucleus of the messianic Kingdom 
which would be set up when Jesus would return in glory. 
For this reason the symbolic number twelve must be 
kept intact. 

The chief reason for the renewed faith and courage of 
the disciples has been mentioned. They were absolutely 
convinced that Jesus was alive—that he had been raised 
from the dead, and had been exalted to the right hand 
of God---and they were expecting confidently that he 
would immediately return to begin his glorified reign as 
Messiah. But there was another reason for their con- 
fidence and joyfulness. This was the conviction that 
the Spirit of God was with them. The ancient prophets 
of Israel had possessed this Spirit. God had given it 
to them as his representatives, specially set aside in the 
midst of a “perverse nation” to be his servants and the 
exponents of his will. They had foretold the coming of 


THE NEW BEGINNING 11g 


a blessed age—the messianic Kingdom—when Israel 
would be in reality a holy nation, and the Spirit would 
be bestowed upon all the people as now upon the 
prophets. For example, Peter quotes from the prophet 
Joel as follows: 

In the last days, saith God, 

I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, 

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, 

Your young men shall see visions, 

Your old men shall dream dreams; 

On my very slaves and slave girls will I pour 

out my Spirit 

And they shall prophesy. 

The disciples now believed this age had come, that 
they were the new Israel, and that the Spirit was given 
to each one of them. They had the consciousness of 
the presence of the Spirit in their midst, the conviction 
that God’s message was in their hearts, and that they 
had direct communion with him. This is what gave 
them such confidence in the presence of all opposition. 

This conviction came to them in an especial manner 
when “‘they were all together,” probably in John Mark’s 
home, on the Jewish festival of Pentecost, fifty days after 
the Passover. This was probably the occasion when 
they first became conscious of the peculiar manifestation 
called in the New Testament ‘‘speaking with tongues.” 
They were filled with such irrepressible confidence and 
joy that one after another, and then all together, they 
began to break forth in ecstatic utterance, which they 
recognized as the voice of the Spirit with which they 
were filled. The author of Acts, in accordance with his 
custom, makes this occasion symbolic of the universality 
of Christianity. He is about to tell the story of how 


120 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Christianity was carried into all lands of the Empire, 
and uses this striking incident, when the disciples first 
experienced the strange phenomenon of speaking with 
tongues, as a symbol of what followed. He may also 
have had in mind a parallelism between this beginning 
of the church and the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, 
when, according to Jewish belief, God’s voice was heard 
in seventy different dialects. 

The nature of this “speaking with tongues” is best 
determined from Paul’s references to it in his letters, 
especially the fourteenth chapter of his First Letter to 
the Corinthians. It was not intelligible. “He who 
speaks in a ‘tongue,’” says Paul, ‘addresses God, not 
men; no one understands him; he is talking of divine 
secrets in the Spirit—if at a gathering of the whole 
Church everybody speaks with tongues and if outsiders 
or unbelievers come in, will they not say you are insane ?” 
So also in the account in Acts some of the onlookers said: 
“They are full of new wine,” and Peter explained the 
phenomenon by saying when he began his address: 
“These men are not drunk as you imagine. Why, it is 
only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was 
predicted by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days saith 
God, I will pour forth my Spirit upon all flesh.’ ” 

The feast of Pentecost, corresponding to our Thanks- 
giving, a time of joyfulness, was a natural time for such 
an outburst of enthusiasm. The disciples were “all 
gathered together in one place,” no doubt to give united 
thanks for the joyous assurance of their Master’s glorious 
deliverance from death and exaltation to power. There 
came to them a complete and intense reaction from the 
terrible period of dejection that had come with his 


gh 


THE NEW BEGINNING 121 


Crucifixion. Their feelings of hope, assurance, and 
confident expectation were released in a flood of joyous, 
ecstatic utterance so spontaneous, so sudden, that the 
sound seemed to fill the room “‘like a violent blast of 
wind.” ‘They were filled with such courage and enthu- 
siasm that, led by Peter, they began the first public 
declaration of the great message. A large number 
joined them on this day and the first community of 
disciples was thus formed. What Jesus had failed to 
accomplish during his life was now a reality, a community 
of followers, the nucleus of the Great Church of ages 
to come. 


4. THE FIRST COMMUNITY 


This first community of disciples did not at first think 
of establishing a new religion. They were still Jews 
and kept up Jewish worship and ceremonials, meeting 
daily in the Temple and expecting the return of Jesus to 
inaugurate the new messianic era. They themselves 
were the faithful ‘“‘remnant,” the true Israel, the nucleus 
of the Kingdom. When the Messiah should return, the 
nation as a whole should be sifted, the repentant taken 
into the Kingdom, ‘‘saved from this crooked generation,” 
the wicked destroyed. Jesus was the Jewish Messiah; 
all other peoples must come into Judaism for messianic 
deliverance. 

As Jesus’ return was delayed they gradually came to 
the conclusion that it was their task to prepare their 
countrymen for his return by a message of repentance 
such as John and Jesus had used. Their message may 
be inferred from the account of Peter’s speeches given in 
the second and third chapters of Acts. What was new 


122 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


to Jewish ears centered around the person of Jesus as 
Messiah and Lord: 


Jesus the Nazarene, a man accredited to you by God through 
mighty works, wonders, and signs, you crucified according to 
prophecy. ‘This Jesus God raised from the dead, as we can all 
bear witness, and has made him both Lord and Christ. Uplifted 
by God’s right hand and having received from the Father the 
long-promised holy Spirit, he has poured on us what you now 
see and hear. Repent then, and turn to have your sins blotted 
out, so that a breathing space may be vouchsafed you, and that 
the Lord may send Jesus, your long-delayed Christ, who must be 
kept in Heaven till all things be restored. 


These words, taken from Peter’s speeches in the second 
and third chapters of Acts, follow two parallel lines of 
argument and evidence deduced from the Old Testament 
Scriptures and the experience of the disciples. This is 
an epitome of the faith and message of the early disciples. 
The points may be itemized as follows: 

1. Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified is alive. God raised 
him from the dead. 

2. This Resurrection is a proof of his messiahship. 

3. His death was in fulfilment of God’s purpose, in accordance 
with prophecy, and so in no sense a defeat. 

4. He will come again in glory as the Messiah and establish 
his Kingdom. Repent, therefore, and prepare for his coming. 

5. Those who repent will receive forgiveness and the gift of 
the Spirit. 

6. The ecstatic speaking with tongues which you now see and 
hear is the express manifestation of the Spirit sent by Jesus from 
heaven upon his faithful disciples. 

7. This Spirit has long been expected. This present manifes- 
tation is in accordance with the prophecy of Joel and is a further 
proof of Jesus’ messiahship, 


It will be seen that the two great cardinal points in 
this faith and message are personal devotion and loyalty 


>. ae 


THE NEW BEGINNING 123 


to Jesus and confidence in the presence of the Spirit 
which he had sent. ‘These two facts explain everything 
in the conduct of this early community. They felt that 
he now dominated their lives and prescribed their whole 
activity. In a stricter sense than before his Crucifixion 
he was their Master. For this reason they called him 
Lord, and their first task as annunciated by Peter was 
to “let all the house of Israel understand beyond a 
doubt that God has made him both Lord and Christ.” 
Their personal acquaintance with Jesus and their inspira- 
tion with his message was what distinguished them from 
other sects of Judaism. It was their personal loyalty 
to Jesus that transformed the rigid monotheism of Juda- 
ism into a confident trust in a living, heavenly Father. 

This personal loyalty and devotion to Jesus drew 
them together into the closest personal fellowship in 
which the only interest was that of the intense expecta- 
tion of the return of Jesus to establish the Kingdom. 
With this in view, “‘all these men resorted with one mind 
to prayer,” and when many others joined them after the 
special manifestation of the Spirit’s presence on Pentecost, 

They devoted themselves to the instruction given by the 
apostles and to fellowship, breaking bread and praying together. 
Awe fell on everyone and many signs and wonders were performed 
by the apostles. The believers all kept together; they shared 
all they had with one another, they would sell their possessions 
and goods and distribute the proceeds among all, as anyone might 
be in need. Day after day they resorted with one accord to the 
Temple and broke bread together in their homes. They ate 
bread with a glad and simple heart, praising God and looked on 
with favor by all the people. 

Here we have a graphic picture of the life of this early 
community. ‘They kept constantly together and prayed 


124 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


continually, no doubt, for the return of their Master as 
the glorified Messiah. They spent most of the time in 
the Temple, expecting that he would make his first 
appearance there according to prophecy. Daily from 
house to house they met in groups for a common meal, 
which they observed in special memory of their Master 
and which they called the Lord’s Supper. As they 
expected his return in a very short time they did not 
concern themselves about the ordinary affairs of life, 
and those who had money or possessions contributed to 
the common welfare. 

The conduct of this community, however, was not 
pure communism, a pooling of all their possessions, as 
might be inferred from the account given in Acts. 
Mark’s mother evidently kept her house in Jerusalem. 
The case of Barnabas is cited as worthy of special men- 
tion because ‘“‘he sold a farm belonging to him and 
brought the money which he placed before the feet of 
the apostles.” This instance seems to have been singled 
out because he gave the whole price of the farm to the 
common cause, and there is no intimation that this farm 
included all of his possessions. 

The story of Ananias and Sapphira indicates clearly 
that their guilt did not consist in keeping back part of 
the price of the property which they had sold, but in 
misrepresentation, pretending to give all in order to get 
the credit of special generosity, while secretly keeping 
back a part. “Tell me,” said Peter to Sapphira, evidently 
in order to give her a chance to clear herself of the guilt, 
“did you sell the land for only so much ?” ‘Yes,” she 
said, “that was all we sold it for.” His words to 
Ananias show clearly that he was under no obligation 


THE NEW BEGINNING 125 


to give all or indeed any of the property or money. 
‘When it remained unsold, did it not remain your own ? 
And even after the sale was the money not yours to do as 
you pleased with it?’ What looks like communism 
was an intense devotion to the common cause that led 
many to devote to it a part or all of their wealth. This 
was done more freely on account of the belief that the 
Messiah’s coming was very near. 

The difficulty sometimes experienced of understand- 
ing the life of this earliest community of disciples arises 
mainly from a failure to recognize the second fact men- 
tioned above as a determining element in the faith and 
life of the disciples, that they felt themselves to be 
directly under the influence of the Spirit. Not only did 
each member of the community have this “gift of the 
Spirit” but it was the common possession of the com- 
munity, which consequently might be said to be spirit- 
governed. In the old Israel the Spirit was granted only 
to a chosen few and to these only at intervals, but in 
the new Israel this gift was bestowed upon each member. 
New members were initiated by the rite of baptism “into 
the name,” that is to say, into the domain or sphere of 
influence of the name of Jesus. 

There was no regular organization at first, and no 
specially appointed leaders, because no organization or 
government was necessary by reason of the fact that 
the gift of the Spirit was bestowed upon all and all were 
guided by the Spirit. ‘There was no set form of worship 
because each disciple spoke or prayed only under the 
influence of the Spirit, and no one had any right to con- 
trol such expression or activity. Peter’s prominence was 
caused no doubt by his having been the leader among the 


126 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


disciples during Jesus’ ministry, by his having been the 
first to become convinced of the appearance of the 
“risen Lord,” and by his zeal in spreading that conviction. 
The Twelve, because of the close association with Jesus 
all through his ministry and their consequent familiarity 
with his words, were recognized as the natural teachers 
of the others who had been less favored. So it is said 
that the new members “devoted themselves to the in- 
struction given by the apostles.” 

When the numbers increased and there arose com- 
plaint that some “were being overlooked in the daily 
distribution of food,” “the Twelve summoned the main 
body of the disciples” and advised that some men be 
chosen to look after this matter. The choosing was 
done by “the whole body,” and the men chosen were 
some who were specially distinguished by evidence of 
having the Spirit in greater measure than the others. 
This was the beginning of organization. It wasa gradual 
growth as necessity arose, and especially as the vividness _ 
of the expectation of the Lord’s immediate coming was 
lessened by its delay and the evidence of the Spirit’s guid- 
ance was not so noticeable in the rank and file of the 
growing community. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


1. Scott, The Beginnings of the Church. pp. 1-108. 

2. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic A ge, 
pp. 36-81. 

. Kent, The Life and Teachings of Jesus, pp. 298-310. 

. Kent, The Work and Teachings of the Apostles, pp. 21-51. 

. Farrar, Life of Christ, chap. lxii. 

. Dobschiitz, The Apostolic A ge, pp. 1-28. 

- Bartlet, The Apostolic Age, pp. 1-18. 

I Pfleiderer, Primitive Christianity, I, 1-32. 


CON DAN fB W 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE NEW ARENA 
FROM JUDAISM TO CHRISTIANITY 


1. The First Community and Judaism 
Acts 2536-47; 3:1, 11-26; 421-22; §:12, 17-423) 721-53; 
TO3T4$\ 1131-18; /21321-26 
2. Conflict with Judaism 
ACS OF 0-15 37025: 331 O21, 23022347 20S TONLE 
3. The Broadening Field 
Acts 8:4-40; 9:2, 10; 10:1-48; I1:19 
4. The Decisive Step 
Acts 11: 20-24; John 1:11 
5. The New Name 
Acts 11:25, 26 


I. THE FIRST COMMUNITY AND JUDAISM 


The account given in our sources indicates clearly 
the attitude of the early disciples toward Judaism. 
“Let all the house of Israel,” said Peter in his first 
reported address, ‘understand beyond a doubt that 
God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this very 
Jesus whom you crucified,” and again, “The promise is 
meant for you and for your children.”” Wesee “Peter and 
John on their way up to the Temple for the hour of prayer 
at three in the afternoon.” Later, Peter tells the Jews 
that “‘the God who glorified Jesus is the God of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob,” and says: ‘Repent then, that the Lord 
may send Jesus, your long decreed Messiah.” He quotes 
Moses as saying: ‘‘The Lord, your God, will raise up a 
prophet for you from among your brotherhood as he 
raised me,” and adds: ‘‘It was for you that God raised 
up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning each 


127 


128 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


one of you from your wicked ways.” “Now I know, 
brothers,” he said to them, evidently in a conciliatory 
attitude, ‘that you acted in ignorance like your fathers.” 

This same note of loyalty to Judaism runs all through 
Stephen’s speech. Anti-legalistic it undoubtedly is, but 
there is no indication that he thought of doing away with 
Judaism. He wanted, rather, to reform and purify it 
after the manner of the Old Testament prophets. He 
referred to it as “Living Oracles” and “the Law that 
angels transmitted.” Peter’s attitude is indicated by 
his answer in the vision that came to him with reference 
to eating meats that were forbidden by the Jewish law: 
“No, no, my Lord,” he said, when asked to partake, 
“IT have never eaten anything ceremonially unclean.” 
When he returned to Jerusalem after obeying his vision 
by visiting a Roman army captain, some of the disciples 
complained, saying: ‘‘You went into the houses of men 
who are not Jews and you ate with them!” He had to 
defend himself by telling them the story of the vision. 

When Paul and Barnabas returned from their first 
journey among the Gentiles and “reported how God had 
been with them and what he had done, some of the 
believers who belonged to the pharisaic party got up and 
said, “Gentiles must be made Jews and told to observe 
the law of Moses.’” And even much later, when Paul 
made his last visit to Jerusalem near the close of his 
career, the leaders among the disciples there advised him 
to conciliate the Jewish disciples by going through a 
Jewish ceremony in the Temple. They said to him: 
“Brother, you see how many thousands of believers 
there are among the Jews, all of whom are ardent 
upholders of the Law.” 


THE NEW ARENA 129 


From these quotations it is evident that the little 
brotherhood of disciples did not at first constitute an 
organization apart from Judaism, nor does it appear 
that they had any aspirations in that direction for a 
considerable time. In fact, they thought of themselves 
as loyal Jews, more loyal indeed than those who were not 
disciples, for as has been seen, they believed that they 
constituted the true Israel—the faithful ‘‘remnant,” 
spoken of by the prophets. The only apparent differ- 
ence between them and other pious Jews was that they 
accepted Jesus as the Messiah and looked for his speedy 
return to take up his messianic work. ‘This did not make 
them less loyal to Judaism. They worshiped daily in 
the Temple and no doubt continued to observe all the 
details of the Jewish law, even more zealously than ever, 
that they might be ready for the coming of the Kingdom. 

They believed that Jesus would soon return to “‘re- 
store the Kingdom to Israel,’’ and when his coming was 
delayed, they came to the conclusion that the reason for 
the delay was to give the Jewish people ‘a breathing 
space”—an opportunity to repent and accept him as 
Messiah in order that “‘all things should be restored”’ to 
primitive or Mosaic loyalty and devotion to Jehovah. 
With this idea came the conviction that it was their 
mission to ‘‘let all the house of Israel understand beyond 
a doubt that God had made Jesus both Lord and 
Messiah.” Other people, of course, should be included 
in the Kingdom, but they must come in through the 
door of Judaism. 

The fact that for a considerable period, probably for 
two or three years after the Crucifixion, the disciples 
were permitted to teach the messiahship of Jesus in 


130 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Jerusalem with practically no opposition, shows that they 
were regarded as another Jewish sect like the Essenes. 
The Jewish leaders evidently believed that in putting 
Jesus to death they had accomplished their purpose, 
and they looked on his few plebeian disciples as harmless 
fanatics whose adherence to a “Messiah” who had suffered 
the shameful death of crucifixion seemed to cap the 
climax of their absurd superstition. The fact that they 
were still faithfully observing the forms of the law freed 
them from suspicion. 

On two occasions during this period the leaders of 
the disciples were arrested and brought before the temple 
authorities at the instigation of the Sadducees, the 
ruling party. The Sadducees were probably not con- 
cerned with the teaching of the disciples. There was in 
it so far no note of disloyalty to the institutions of 
Judaism. The Sadducees, who were the political rather 
than the religious leaders, did not trouble themselves 
about questions of orthodoxy so long as the existing 
political state of affairs which they dominated was not 
threatened. The cause for their interference was the 
fear that the disciples might cause a revolutionary dis- 
turbance. The arrests were made when large crowds 
had been attracted by the cures performed by the apostles 
in the name of Jesus, which were undoubtedly of the 
Same nature as those performed by Jesus himself. 

In both cases the leaders were merely threatened and 
told to be more discreet in their utterance. This was a 
perfectly natural procedure in view of the fact that the 
object of the political leaders was merely to prevent the 
occasion for the disturbances which they believed were 
caused by these fanatical public preachers. The Sad- 


THE NEW ARENA 131 


ducees seem to have been satisfied with the result of their 
warnings, as they do not appear to have taken part in the 
arrest of Stephen later. There was thus far no break with 
Judaism but only an effort at reformation from within. 

It should not be inferred, however, that these early 
disciples were not conscious of anything new in their 
message. They had in them something entirely different 
from Judaism-—the spiritual conception of religion 
imparted to them by Jesus, the free spirit that was 
destined sooner or later to break through the narrow 
confines of Judaism and become a world-religion. 

The profound and revolutionary message of Jesus, so 
antagonistic to the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, 
the exponents of orthodox Judaism, was by no means 
forgotten, as the gospel records show. It had only for 
the moment fallen into the background, obscured, on the 
one hand, by the novelty of their being at the very heart 
of Judaism in the sacred precincts of the Temple, and, 
on the other, by their vivid expectation of their Master’s 
speedy return. At first they were trying to pour this 
“new wine into old wine skins.””’ They had no idea of 
breaking away from their ancestral religion. They 
expected rather to restore it to its primitive purity and 
power. At the same time, while they were in Judaism, 
they were in reality not of it but essentially of a different 
nature incompatible with Judaism, and it was inevitable 
that a separation should come. 


2. THE CONFLICT WITH JUDAISM 


How did this community of loyal Jews become inde- 
pendent of Judaism, so as to inaugurate a world-religion 
with a new name? This change was of far-reaching 


132 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


significance. Without it there would have been no 
organization known as Christianity-—no new religion, but 
merely another sect in Judaism beating out its life 
against the iron bars of a rigid monotheistic dogmatism, 
and destined to disappear even as a sect as years passed 
by and Jesus did not return. 

The cause of the separation has already been inti- 
mated. It was the inherent strength of the movement 
itself--the broad, free spirit of Jesus, who, as we have 
seen before, was not interested in Jews merely as Jews, 
but in Jewsasmen. It was the fact, to which the author 
of Acts makes little allusion, that Jesus’ message, NOW 
seething in the minds and hearts of the disciples, was 
utterly incompatible with the teaching of orthodox 
Judaism, and even without their will or intention started 
the new movement in a separate career. The change was 
accelerated by the conversion in increasing numbers of 
Hellenists, or Jews of the Dispersion, who had resided 
for some time in other lands, and, while retaining their 
religion, had adopted the Greek language and to a 
greater or less extent Greek customs. These Jews 
naturally had a wider outlook, a cosmopolitan attitude, 
and the free spirit of Jesus’ teaching appealed to them. 

There was a liberalizing influence at work even in 
Palestine at this time-—-a tendency for the synagogue and 
the rabbi to take the place of the Temple and the priest. 
This tendency was much more marked outside of 
Palestine where the influence of the Temple worship was 
not so potent. A natural parallel was drawn between 
the synagogue and the Greek philosophical schools, and 
the Jews themselves endeavored to show that the teach- 
ing of these schools was founded on the Mosaic Law. 


THE NEW ARENA 1G 


The foreign Jews soon recognized the incompatibility 
of Jesus’ free spiritual religion with the rigid legalism of 
the Temple worship and teaching, and gradually came to 
see that its acceptance meant a practical displacement of 
the Mosaic Law. The liberality of Jesus’ teaching 
attracted the Hellenists, and at the same time their 
cosmopolitan point of view gave a freer interpretation 
of it and a desire to present it as a universal message. At 
the same time, a break between them and their Palestin- 
ian brothers was made more probable by the reason of 
the fact that they were looked down on as aliens, and 
regarded with more or less suspicion because of their 
culture and tolerance. 

While it was thus inevitable that sooner or later the 
new movement would break the bonds of Judaism, the 
occasion of the beginning of the break was furnished by 
the Jews themselves in that the jealousy caused by the 
increasing numbers of the disciples after a time mani- 
fested itself in open opposition, and finally in persecu- 
tion. 

The first intimation of the break came when the 
number of the disciples became so great as to attract 
attention, especially when some men of ability, posi- 
tion, and influence joined their ranks. Many of these 
were no doubt Hellenists. This is indicated by the 
appointment of seven men to look after their poor, ‘who 
were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.” 
All of the men chosen had Greek names and were prob- 
ably the leading men among the Hellenists, as is indicated 
by the reported words of the Twelve: “Brothers, look 
out seven of your own number, men of good reputation, 
who are full of the Spirit and of wisdom.” 


134 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


In this trouble over details of administration, we can 
see in its incipiency the separation of this early com- 
munity into two denominations, a separation of which 
the real cause lay in the different points of view indicated 
above. 

It was one of these Hellenist leaders named Stephen, 
evidently a man of marked ability and influence, who 
became the center of attack. Stephen carried on an 
active campaign in the Hellenistic synagogues in Jeru- 
salem with great success. This aroused the jealousy 
and bitter opposition of the more zealous Jews among 
the Hellenists who accused him before the Sanhedrin on 
the charge of blasphemy—the same charge on which 
Jesus had been brought before this tribunal and with a 
similar foundation. 

The cause of the opposition to Stephen was not really 
that he taught that Jesus abrogated the Law, as the “false 
witnesses’’ testified. On the contrary, he called it ‘‘liv- 
' ing oracles” and based his whole argument upon it. 
His reported speech before the Sanhedrin is not so much 
a defense as a summary of his teaching. It is distinctly 
anti-legalistic and gives clear indication that his attitude 
could easily have been interpreted as deprecating the 
Temple in that he taught that it was not essential to the 
true worship of God. There is, however, nothing in it 
to indicate a definite repudiation of the Law. 

The real cause of the opposition was then, as it always 
has been, in the case of a religious reformer from the 
earliest prophets to the present time, that by placing the 
emphasis on the spiritual side of worship and in con- 
sequence taking so decided a position of antagonism to 
the current legalism, he aroused the fear that the formal 


THE NEW ARENA 135 


side, as exhibited in the ritualistic Temple worship might 
be neglected and ultimately superseded. In other 
words, then as always, the legalists feared that the 
destruction of legalism meant the destruction of their 
religion. They felt that he virtually denied the authority 
of the ritual law, formal conformity to which constituted 
the sum total of their religion, felt it so keenly that they 
killed him. And he was so convinced of the truth of his 
position that he would not soften his words, but drove 
them to kill him. ‘The case of Stephen is exactly parallel 
with that of Jesus. | 

Stephen had not fully come to the position later taken 
by Paul that Christianity was to supplant Judaism, 
although he had come much farther in this direction 
than had the Twelve, and much farther no doubt than 
he himself realized. It was the free spirit of Jesus 
referred to before, eloquently and forcefully finding 
utterance through a powerful advocate, that gave 
offense, as is always the case when the spiritual comes 
into conflict with the legalistic in religion. 

The theme of the speech is found in the words: 
“Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ear. 
You are always resisting the holy Spirit. As with 
your fathers, so with you! Which of the prophets 
did your fathers fail to persecute? They killed those 
who announced beforehand the coming of the Right- 
eous One. And here you have betrayed him, mur- 
dered him! You who got the law that angels trans- 
mitted and have not obeyed it.” It was the same 
accusation as that of Jesus. The religious leaders 
. themselves were committing the sin of which they 
accused him—resisting the Law of God. This sin was 


136 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY — 


characteristic of them as of their fathers. He cited 
from their history instance after instance of disobedience 
to the will of God and made the climax of disobedience 
the rejection of Jesus, the God-sent Messiah of the 
prophets. 

Stephen’s reference to the Temple indicates the ground 
of their accusation. He taught, as did Jesus, that mere 
formal worship was not accepted by God, that it was 
not enough to worship in the Temple. God might be 
worshiped ‘‘in spirit and in reality”’ even in temples not 
made with hands. There was nothing in his speech to 
substantiate the charge of blasphemy. The occasion 
for this charge is indicated by the words of the false 
witnesses: “This fellow is never done talking against 
this holy place and the Law.” ‘This was how they 
interpreted his teaching of spiritual religion and his 
reference to the Temple as not being fundamental in 
worship. But his closing words, when in ¢ moment of 
exaltation he cried out: ‘Look! I see heaven open 
and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand!” 
furnished the excuse for condemnation. The real cause 
was the rage of his accusers excited by his scathing 
denunciation of their sin in resisting the Spirit of God. 
It was this that threw them into such a frenzy of rage 
that they became like wild beasts and “‘gnashed at him 
with their teeth.” | 

The execution of this bold leader was the signal for a 
general persecution of the new sect, led by a young 
rabbi from the Greek city of Tarsus, who had been his 
chief opponent and the mouthpiece of the religious 
leaders among the Pharisees. The Jewish leaders were 
now thoroughly aroused—the Sadducees because of 


THE NEW ARENA 137 


Stephen’s remarks about the Temple, which seemed 
to be aimed at their political supremacy, and the 
Pharisees because of his scathing denunciation of their 
iron-bound legalism and his advocacy of spiritual 
religion. In fact, the cause of enmity to Stephen and 
the disciples whom they associated with him was identical 
with that which caused the death of Jesus—the old 
struggle between the legal and the spiritual in religion. 
This first persecution seems to have been carried on 
for a time with considerable severity, ‘“‘and all with the 
exception of the apostles were scattered over Judea and 
Bamana.) dis. Saul made havoc of the church by 
entering one house after another, dragging off men and 
women and consigning them to prison.” The severity 
of the persecution is indicated by Paul’s reference to it 
long afterward as given in Acts: “I persecuted this way 
of religion to the death, chaining and imprisoning both 
men and women..... When they were put to death 
I voted against them; there was not a synagogue 
where I did not often punish them, and in my frantic 
frenzy I persecuted them, even to foreign towns.” 


3. THE BROADENING FIELD 


“That day a severe persecution broke out against 
the church in Jerusalem and all with the exception of the 
apostles were scattered over Judea and Samaria. .... 
Those who had to scatter went through the land preach- 
ing the Good News.” These words from the Book of 
Acts refer to what happened immediately after the 
death of Stephen. The execution of this bold leader 
brought matters to a crisis at once. It marked the 
initial stage of a new era in the progress of the new 


138 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


movement—a distinct break with Judaism and the 
establishment of an independent organization with a 
new name. 

Up to this time all the disciples were content to 
remain loyal Jews, faithfully observing the Temple 
worship and the details of the Mosaic ritual, apparently 
without any thought of establishing a new religion. 
Even now the Palestinian disciples, represented by their 
leaders, the Twelve, do not seem to have recognized 
any line of cleavage. The account says that ‘‘all were 
scattered except the apostles.”” These were evidently 
so strict in their observance of the details of the Jewish 
forms and ceremonies and so conservative in their 
utterances that they avoided all suspicion of disloyalty 
to Judaism. ‘Those who had to scatter” were the 
Hellenistic disciples like Philip, and their persecutors 
were Hellenistic Jews like Paul. These Hellenistic 
disciples had been loyal Jews but they now found 
themselves branded as heretics and outcasts and hunted 
like outlaws. As Paul tells us later, some of them were 
thrown into prison, some were scourged publicly in the 
synagogues in order to compel them to give up their 
allegiance to Jesus by cursing his name, and some like 
Stephen were put to death. 

This treatment by the Jewish leaders naturally 
raised the question as to what was first in their religious 
allegiance, loyalty to the Mosaic Law as interpreted by 
the Jewish religious leaders or to the messiahship and 
lordship of Jesus. They did not see the final result, 
but they were compelled to choose, and they put Jesus 
first and “went everywhere preaching the Good News” 
of his messiahship. ‘Thus it came about that it was the 


THE NEW ARENA 139 


Hellenistic disciples who became the first messengers of 
the new faith, while the Palestinian Jewish disciples 
escaped persecution and remained in Jerusalem because 
they were still loyal to the strictly Jewish point of view. 

This first persecution does not seem to have lasted 
very long. The Jewish leaders were probably satisfied 
with the scattering of the Hellenistic disciples, and a 
period of peace followed. The Twelve seemed to have 
been contented to remain in Jerusalem, awaiting their 
Master’s return. They do not seem to have left 
Jerusalem until about twelve years after the death of 
Stephen, when a second persecution was begun by Herod 
Agrippa I, a grandson of Herod the Great. This 
puppet of the Roman government, although irreligious 
and profligate, posed as a champion of strict Phari- 
saism and persecuted the disciples in order to secure 
popularity. 

This time the persecution was directed against the 
leaders of the disciples, and one of the Twelve, “ James 
the brother of John,” was put to death. Peter and 
probably others had to flee for their lives. This persecu- 
tion was cut short in 44 A.D. by the sudden death of 
Herod Agrippa from a loathsome disease attributed by 
the disciples to the judgment of God. The Palestinian 
disciples seem now to have grown still more conservative, 
evidently in fear of a break with Judaism. Under the 
leadership of ‘‘ James the Lord’s brother” the Jerusalem 
community continued to be increasingly suspicious of 
the gentile disciples and zealous to be regarded as loyal 
Jews until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. 

Thus it was the religious bigotry and intolerance of 
their own countrymen, finally developing into persecution, 


I40 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


that opened up a new field which at first the Hellenistic 
disciples and afterward even some of the Twelve were 
compelled to enter. Many of these Hellenists had 
acquired a competence by the exercise of their commercial 
talents and industry in foreign lands and had ‘‘retired”’ 
to Jerusalem to spend their lives in peace and prosperity 
in the ‘Holy City” within the shadow of the sacred 
Temple, the earthly abode of the God of their fathers. 
When driven out by persecution, most of them naturally 
returned to their former homes in the commercial centers 
of the Empire. 

These disciples are not to be regarded as traveling 
evangelists. They had to make their living. But they 
could not refrain from telling the ‘good news”’ which was 
now a large part of their very lives. Wherever they 
settled they gathered around them little companies of 
converts which became communities patterned after the 
first community at Jerusalem. These communities 
came to be called ekklestai, a Greek word referring to 
assemblies of people gathered into some public place for 
deliberation. The name ekklesiai was adopted by the 
disciples to refer particularly to their little communities 
when assembled for worship. This is the word that 
is translated “church” in the New Testament. 

We do not know much in detail of the progress of 
this first preaching of the ‘‘good news” in the new 
field outside of Jerusalem. A few instances are given in 
Acts as samples of progress toward the acceptance of the 
Gentiles and independence of Judaism evidently with 
the intention of leading up to the great and decisive work 
of the author’s hero, the great apostle Paul. There is 
no reason to doubt that the vivid pictures thus given 


THE NEW ARENA I4I 


are true to life and typical of the work of ail the 
“scattered”’ disciples. 

It was natural that the Samaritans should be the first 
people outside of Judaism to receive with favor the 
proclamation of the coming of the messianic Kingdom. 
Their acceptance as disciples was not a complete 
departure from Judaism, for they worshiped Jehovah 
and observed the Jewish rites, accepting the five books 
of Moses commonly called the ‘‘Pentateuch.” They 
were less intolerant than the Jews and consequently 
constituted a more promising field for the Hellenist 
Philip, one of the Seven. Samaria was on the way to 
his home in Caesarea in the north of Palestine. We are 
told that Philip ‘‘went down to the city of Samaria and 
proclaimed the Messiah there” with great success. It 
is probable that he began his work in the same region 
formerly visited by Jesus, and his success may have 
been due in large measure to the seed sown at that time. 

A greater step is represented as having been taken 
by Philip in the conversion of an Ethiopian officer, a 
proselyte, who came to worship at Jerusalem. The work 
in Samaria evidently continued for a considerable time. 
The news reached Jerusalem. Peter and John went 
to Samaria to see what was being done and remained 
to assist in the work. When they returned, Philip 
probably accompanied them and in this way heard of 
the visit of the Ethiopian officer. The visit of the 
treasurer of the queen of Ethiopia, the famous kingdom 
in the far-distant southland, would make a sensation in 
Jerusalem. As he ‘‘had come to Jerusalem for worship”’ 
he probably had brought rich gifts to the Temple and he 
would be the chief topic of interest in the city at that time. 


142 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Philip would naturally see in this visit of the treasurer 
an excellent opportunity to send the “good news” to 
the great southern kingdom. As has been noted, all 
these early disciples believed that they were under the 
direct guidance of the Spirit. He would then, of course, 
naturally obey the impulse that came to him to follow 
the treasurer when he departed, in order to have a 
good opportunity to tell him of the Messiah. | 

The fact that the Ethiopian treasurer was reading a 
passage from Isaiah about Jehovah’s suffering servant 
and thinking about its interpretation is an indication that 
he had heard the disciples in Jerusalem referring to that 
passage as being fulfilled in Jesus as the Messiah. His 
acceptance as a disciple was not yet a complete break 
with Judaism, owing to the fact that he was evidently 
a proselyte, but it shows a gradual extension of the field 
of operation as he was not a born Jew, and it is for this 
reason that it was reported. 

A still greater step is reported as having been taken 
by Peter, probably a considerable time afterward, in 
accepting a Roman army captain of Caesarea, without 
compelling him to accept Jewish rites. This captain was 
a worshiper of Jehovah but had not become a proselyte. 
Because of his impulsive nature we should expect Peter 
to be the first of the Twelve to break through the barrier 
that separated the Gentiles from the privilege of disciple- 
ship. His action in this case is especially noteworthy 
as being the beginning of the break of the Palestinian 
disciples with strict legalism. 

The account of this incident tells us that he was 
specially prepared by a vision, but we understand that 
visions come to those who are ready to receive them. 


THE NEW ARENA 143 


A man of Peter’s impressionable nature could not but 
have been deeply affected by the eloquent anti-legalistic 
preaching and the consequent martyrdom of Stephen. 
He had probably long been wrestling with this problem. 
There is a strong intimation of this in the fact that “‘in 
Joppa he stayed for some time at the house of Simon, 
a tanner.” This was contrary to orthodox Jewish 
custom, as the tanner’s trade was ‘‘unclean”’ before the 
Law. 

Peter must have been growing impatient with 
the trammels of legalistic Judaism, or he would not have 
been lodging at the house of a tanner. No doubt he 
recalled the striking words of Jesus, when condemn- 
ing the petty traditions of the Pharisees: ‘Nothing 
outside a man can defile him by entering him; it does 
not enter his heart, but his stomach.” It will be remem- 
bered that Mark got his gospel from Peter. ‘These 
words he had no doubt often heard him quote, and the 
interpretation, ‘‘thus he pronounced all food clean,” 
would naturally come from the same source. Peter 
would be thinking over this problem and wondering 
what his colleagues at Jerusalem would say if they knew 
where he was staying. In this state of mind he fell asleep. 
Thus we have a natural setting for his vision. 

It was just what we might expect of Peter that he 
should go at once to the house of the Roman captain, 
Cornelius, when invited, and speak his message, especially 
since Cornelius was already a devout worshiper of 
Jehovah. It is quite likely too that Cornelius had been 
prepared for his vision and desire to hear Peter by the 
preaching of Philip, whose home was at Caesarea, for 
we cannot believe that a disciple who was so active and 


144 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


eloquent in telling the ‘good news” on his way would 
be silent when he arrived home. 

Cornelius and his household readily accepted Peter’s 
enthusiastic and convincing message, and the same 
signs of the Spirit’s presence were quickly seen by Peter, 
giving him confident assurance of the acceptability to 
God of the gentile captain and his associates without 
Jewish rites. When he was taken to task by his Jewish 
brothers on his return to Jerusalem, he defended his 
position by relating his vision and especially by the 
evidence of the gift of the Spirit bestowed on the converts. 
There is no intimation that the Jerusalem disciples 
recognized in this case a definite breaking-down of the 
wall between Jews and Gentiles. It was approved as a 
special case authorized by a vision. Association with 
the Gentiles was not approved but merely their accept- 
ance as disciples after the analogy of proselytes, probably 
with the idea that they would later completely accept 


Judaism. 
4. THE DECISIVE STEP 


‘“‘Now those who had been scattered by the trouble 
which arose over Stephen made their way as far as 
Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch.” ‘The decisive step 
that brought about the distinct recognition of the 
disciples as a separate religious organization took place 
outside of Palestine in a gentile city, Antioch, the 
‘ capital of the Roman province of Syria. This city was 
well fitted to become the cradle of gentile Christianity. 
It was one of the largest cities in the Empire and the 
meeting point of the commerce and civilization of the 


East and West. Josephus, the contemporary Jewish 


historian, tells us that it stood next to Alexandria in the 


THE NEW ARENA 145 


number of its Jewish citizens, and that these were very 
active in making proselytes, of whom there was a very 
large number in the city. 

“But they preached the word to none except Jews,”’ 
says our earliest account. Even Paul, who gloried in 
his apostleship to the Gentiles, said later, when referring 
to the “good news,” that it was ‘‘for the Jew first.” 
This was natural. All of the first disciples were Jews. 
They believed that Jesus was the glorified Messiah, 
that is to say, the King of the Jews exalted to the right 
hand of God, and that he would soon return “‘to restore 
the Kingdom to Israel.” They believed also that his 
disciples now constituted the true Israel, and that it 
was their mission to ‘‘let all the house of Israel under- 
stand beyond a doubt that God had made him both 
Lord and Messiah,” and to bring all their countrymen to 
accept him as they had done. His return was delayed 
until this should be accomplished, and thus the nation 
“restored”’ to its primitive loyalty to Jehovah. 

“Some of them, however, were Cypriotes and 
Cyrenians who on reaching Antioch told the Greeks 
also the ‘good news’ concerning the Lord Jesus. The 
strong hand of the Lord was with them and a large 
number believed and turned to the Lord.” Here 
in Antioch for the first time the message of the dis- 
ciples was brought to Gentiles who were entirely 
outside of Judaism. This was a natural step for the 
Hellenistic disciples to take. They were loyal Jews 
who had left their homes in various commercial centers 
of the Empire and had taken up their abode in Jerusalem 
within the precincts of the Temple to enjoy the supreme 
privileges of its worship and the fellowship of their 


146 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


kinsmen. Now they were driven out like enemies and 
aliens. Like their Master, they ‘“‘had come to what 
was their own yet their own people did not welcome 
them.” There was nothing now to do but to come 
back to their old friends, the Gentiles, with whom they 
had done business all their lives, and whom they had 
found human. 

Their first thought, as has been seen, was that 
they must make disciples of all the Jews, but the Jews 
had decisively and scornfully rejected their message. 
Yet the Kingdom must be filled with citizens. They 
probably began to recall Jesus’ universal teaching, 
and so to see meaning they had not before perceived in 
such sayings of his as: ‘Many I tell you will come from 
East and West and take their places beside Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, while the 
sons of the Kingdom will pass outside into the darkness.” 
They found the Greeks as responsive as the Jews had 
been unresponsive, and this showed them that “the 
strong right hand of the Lord was with them.” 

The Acts account tells us that so many Greeks became 
disciples that ‘‘the news reached the Church in 
Jerusalem,” and they dispatched Barnabas to Antioch. 
It will be remembered that Barnabas was a wealthy 
Hellenist, a native of Cyprus, who had become famous 
in the first community in Jerusalem by reason of his 
eloquence and generosity. He had sold one of his 
estates and given the entire proceeds to the common 
cause. The Jerusalem disciples would naturally have 
confidence in him and think of him in connection with 
work among the Greeks because of his familiarity with 
their language and customs. In fact, as he was one of 


THE NEW ARENA 147 


the Hellenists who had been driven from Jerusalem at 
the time of Stephen’s death, he was in all probability 
one of the ‘‘Cypriotes who on reaching Antioch told the 
Greeks also the ‘good news’ concerning the Lord Jesus.” 
He became the leader of the new work among the 
Greeks and “considerable numbers of people were 
brought in for the Lord.” 

This new field was so fruitful and extensive that 
Barnabas needed help. He recognized a great oppor- 
tunity for his great message and began to think of the 
best possible man, one fitted by his talents and education 
for such a great task. He thought of his old friend, 
Saul of Tarsus, who had probably been a fellow-student 
at the great school of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, and whom 
he had introduced to the apostles in Jerusalem on his 
visit there three years after his conversion. The 
apostles were afraid of Saul, but Barnabas undoubtedly 
assured them that he knew him well, and if he said he 
was a disciple they could depend on it. He knew that 
Saul had been for several years since that time preaching 
the ‘‘good news” with success in Syria and his home 
province of Cilicia. 


5. THE NEW NAME 


“‘So Barnabas went off to Tarsus to look for Saul 
and, on finding him, brought him to Antioch where for 
a whole year they were guests of the Church and taught 
a large number of people. It was at Antioch, too, that 
the disciples were originally called ‘Christians,’” 
Barnabas and Saul were so successful that a large 
community of Greek disciples was formed. According 
to Jewish custom, no Jews, not even Hellenists, could 


148 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


live with these Greeks, and consequently they were 
recognized as a distinct body, not Jews in any sense. 
Thus the necessity arose for a new name. 

This name was not given by the disciples themselves. 
When they thought of themselves in relation to Jesus 
they called themselves ‘disciples,’ as he had called 
them. When they thought of themselves in relation 
to one another they called themselves ‘‘brothers,” as 
he had taught them to be. When they thought of their 
relation to the outside world of unbelievers they called 
themselves by a name which is translated “saints,” 
a Greek word meaning “set apart” or “consecrated.” 
The name “Christians” was not used by the disciples 


in these early days in referring to themselves. It could 


not have been given the disciples by the Jews for that 
would have been in the nature of an acknowledgment 
of their claim to be followers of the true Messiah (Christ). 
The Jews called them “the Sect of the Nazarenes,” or 
simply “‘Nazarenes,” and continued to do so for centuries. 

The name “Christians” must have been coined by 
the Greeks after the general analogy of such words as 
“Herodians,” the designation of the partisans of Herod. 
It was given as necessity arose for a new designation. 
Up to that time the disciples had been Jews, and the 
Greeks did not distinguish them from other Jews but 
called them all Jews. But now a large community of 
disciples was formed who were not Jews in any sense, 
not having accepted Jewish rites, not living with Jews. 
The other Greeks heard them speak so much of 
“Christos” that they thought this term was a proper 
name instead of a title, and so called them “Christianoi,” 
or “Christians,” partisans or adherents of Christ. 


THE NEW ARENA 149 


The use of this new name marks a distinct stage in 
the rise of Christianity. The movement was before 
this time regarded as a mere sect of Judaism. It was 
now recognized as a new religion independent of Judaism 
and entered upon a new field—the Roman Empire, which 
was practically coextensive with the world of that day 
and was ready for a new leader to organize it for the 
conquest of this new field and its consequent establish- 
ment as a world-religion. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. McGiffert, Apostolic Age, pp. 81-112. 

. Scott, The Beginning of the Church, pp. 109-323; 224-50. 

. Case, Evolution of Early Christianity, pp. 120-65. 

. Dobschiitz, The Apostolic Age, pp. 28-36. 

. Kent, Work and Teachings of the Apostles, pp. 52-67. 

. Bartlet, Apostolic Age, pp. 18-52. 

. Weizsacker, The Apostolic Age, 1, 59-78. 

. Ropes, The Apostolic Age in the Light of Modern Criticism, 
pp. 81-87. 


or Am PW ND H 


CHAPTER IX 


THE NEW LEADER 
PREPARATION AND MESSAGE OF PAUL 


1. His Preparation 
Acts 7:58; 8:1, 33 9:1, 2; 18:3; 22:3-s; 23: 25-9%- 26:4— 
115. Philg:3-11;) Gall 1373,°14;0 Cor: 15:0," dine 

2. His Call 
Gal! »r2a5-17, 4L{Cot), 9:25.05? 83557: el a Conmaae 
Rom. 1:5; 7:7-25; Phil. 3:7-11; Acts9:1-19a; 22:6-16; 
20:12-19 

3. His Probation 
Gal. 1217-245 \L_Gornis:.3; (LI Corl'11! 32; 335 4Actso tone 
30; 11 719—30; 412225; 922.1 7-21% HNOMa Te ace 

4. His Message 
Gal. 136-9, 11-21; 221; 3:1-14; 5:13-26; Romar s: 
¥4-1.7;°°2:0-103 (3290712, 20-313; 471-103" 5: 1-11. sO sae 
106; (3: 1-7, |.14°17;) 28-3037. 271-13; 20; COLO aes 
II Cor. 5:18-20; Eph. 1:7; Mark 10:45 


I. HIS PREPARATION 


I am a Jew, a native of Tarsus of Cilicia, a citizen of no mean 
city, brought up in this city [Jerusalem], educated at the feet of 
Gamaliel in all the strictness of our ancestral law and naturally 
full of zeal for God . . . . whom I serve from my forefathers in a 
PUTEsCONSCIENCe. 4). I was circumcised on the eighth day after 
birth; I belonged to the race of Israel, to the tribe of Benjamin; 
I was a Hebrew and the son of Hebrews, a Pharisee as regards the 
law, in point of ardor a persecutor of the Church, immaculate by 
the standard of legal righteousness. In Judaism I outstripped 
many of my own age and race in my special ardor for the ancestral 
traditions of my house..... I am a Roman citizen and was so 
born. 


In these words we have a choice bit of biography of the 
man who was to become the new leader of the movement 


150 


THE NEW LEADER I51 


that had its inception in the work of John the Baptist 
and Jesus, and had now come to a critical point in its 
development. Recognized at Antioch as a separate 
religion independent of Judaism, it was ready to enter 
the world-wide field of the Roman Empire. Here it 
must enter into competition with all the established 
religions and philosophies of the Greeks and Romans—a 
seemingly Herculean task for the leadership of the simple 
fishermen of Galilee, Peter, James and John, and others 
of the original Twelve who had thus far held the direction 
of the little communities. In consequence, there was 
urgent need of a new leader—a man of extraordinary 
attainments fitted for an extraordinary task. 

Except in Antioch the disciples were still regarded 
as a Jewish sect. The one man bold enough to preach 
a spiritual religion in Jerusalem, and in so doing to 
condemn the hypocrisy of legalistic Judaism, had been 
stoned to death, and his sympathizers driven from the 
city. There was urgent need of a man of great natural 
capacities and thorough mental training who could 
interpret the new religion to the Graeco-Roman world, 
and meet the leaders among the Greeks and Romans 
on an intellectual plane. None of the Twelve were 
equal to such a task. The Fourth Gospel represents 
Jesus as saying to them on one occasion near the end 
of his ministry: ‘‘I have still much to say to you but 
you cannot bear it just now,” and on various occasions 
the other gospels represent them as not understanding 
him. They did not have sufficient breadth of mind 
and education to grasp the great new ideas he presented. 

Jesus’ message was for the world but he himself 
could go only to “‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 


152 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Peter made a beginning with the Roman captain, 
Cornelius, but he was not equal to the task of carrying 
this idea out to its logical conclusion. The new move- 
ment needed a man who could ‘‘become all things 
to all men,” who could meet on their own intellectual 
plane Jewish rabbis in the synagogues, Roman magis- 
trates in the law courts, and Greek philosophers in the 
schools. Saul of Tarsus, or Paul, to use his better- 
known Greek name, a Hebrew son of Hebrew parents, 
educated at the feet of the greatest teacher of his day, 
citizen of the famous Greek university city, and at 
the same time a free-born Roman, satisfied these require- 
ments. In an exceptionally true sense he was the ‘‘man 
of the hour.” 

As in the case of Jesus, the exact date of his birth 
isunknown. In fact, it cannot be fixed within as narrow 
limits as can that of Jesus. In the account of the 
stoning of Stephen about 35 A.D. he is referred to as 
“a young man.” According to Greek usage, this might 
mean anywhere from twenty to thirty. He was probably 
about thirty, for before that age he could not have been 
a member of the Sanhedrin, as seems to have been the 
case from his reference to his voting against the disciples 
in the persecution that followed. About thirty years 
afterward, when in prison at Rome, he refers to himself 
as an “old man,” which he would hardly have done 
before sixty. Accordingly, we may conclude that he 
was born between 1 A.D. and 5 A.D., being from five to 
ten years younger than Jesus. 

Paul was a native of Tarsus in the Roman province 
of Cilicia, 12 miles from the Mediterranean and soo 
miles from Jerusalem. It was a “free city” and accord- 


THE NEW LEADER 153 


ingly enjoyed valuable rights and privileges, having 
administration of its own finances, authority over its own 
citizens, and exemption from the Roman land tax and 
garrison. In Paul’s day it was one of the three greatest 
centers of education and culture. Strabo, the geographer, 
who lived there from 54 B.c. to 24 A.D., ranks it as the 
greatest center of philosophy in the world, and says 
that Rome was full of learned men from Tarsus and 
Alexandria. It was the seat of a great university dating 
back to the time of Alexander the Great. Near by was 
the home of the poet Aratus from whom Paul quoted in 
his speech at Athens. Tarsus was thus a university 
city of the highest repute. 

This large city, famous over all the world for its 
devotion to learning and the best civilization, must have 
exerted a great influence on the alert and ambitious 
mind of Paul who passed there his boyhood and probably 
several years after his period of study in Jerusalem. 
The scenery too, like that of Nazareth, was inspiring and 
uplifting. He could climb the adjacent hills and look 
out over the vast expanse of the ‘‘Great Sea” with the 
multitudes of ships from all parts of the world, for Tarsus 
was a center of trade between the East and the West. 
No doubt he often contemplated in imagination that 
world over which he was later to travel so widely, 
and no doubt he often conversed with sailors and travelers 
from all countries. Thus he became cosmopolitan in 
outlook, fitted in an eminent degree for leadership of 
a world-movement. 

Our knowledge of Paul’s family and home training 
is very limited. What we know is gathered from a few 
incidental allusions in his letters and Acts. He does 


154 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


not himself refer to relatives or private affairs. He had 
left all for the great cause in which he became so deeply 
absorbed that he forgot self and personal relationships. 
He was, however, proud of his pure Hebrew descent. 
Writing to the Philippians, he says: “I could rely on 
hereditary inheritance if I chose. Whoever thinks he 
can rely on that I can outdo him. I belonged to the 
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew, the son of Hebrews.” 
His pure Hebrew descent may also be inferred from 
his membership in the Sanhedrin, as none but pure 
Jews were eligible. 

In view of the fact that Paul’s father was a Roman 
citizen the family must have been of considerable dignity 
and influence, for.in those days ‘‘to be a Roman was to 
be a King.” The fact that he learned a trade, that of 
making goat-hair fabric for shoes, mats, and all kinds 
of coverings, a native Cilician industry, does not indicate 
that his family was poor or belonged to the lower class. 
Every Jew taught his son a trade. One of the great 
rabbis is credited with the saying: ‘‘He that does 
not teach his son a trade does the same as teach him to 
be a thief.”” Roman citizenship would have meant 
much to him at home, but it meant incalculably more in 
his world-travels. It is true that he suffered many indig- 
nities from the Jews from which a Roman should have 
been exempt, but it was because he would not appeal 
to his right when dealing with his own countrymen. On 
other occasions his citizenship was of great benefit. It 
gave him honorable release from prison in Philippi, 
saved him from scourging in Jerusalem, and enabled him 
to save his life from the Jews in Caesarea by appeal to 
Caesar. 


THE NEW LEADER 155 


Thus there were three things in Paul’s life of which 
he was proud—his native city, his pure Hebrew descent, 
and his Roman citizenship. All of these were of great 
advantage to him as a leader of the new movement. 
The first gave him a great educational advantage and a 
world-outlook; in fact, a natural preparation for his 
world-mission. The second put him in the strongest pos- 
sible position for breaking down the ‘‘wall of partition”’ 
between Jews and Gentiles, and he used it often against 
his Jewish opponents. It gave him immediate access 
to the Jewish common people, as is seen in his address 
to a mob in Jerusalem which he began in their vernacular 
with the words: “Iama Jew.” The third made possible 
to him access to all parts and all classes of the Empire 
and saved him many times from torture and death. 

To the age of twelve or thirteen the education of 
Paul in the synagogue schools would be very similar 
to that of Jesus, to which we have referred before. When 
this period was reached and his course in the synagogue 
school ended, he was sent to Jerusalem for higher 
education. His Hebrew name “‘Saul” means ‘‘asked for,” 
and it may be that like Samuel his parents dedicated 
him from infancy to Jehovah’s service. This would 
agree with his statement in Galatians that “‘God had set 
him apart from his very birth.” It would have been 
easier and more natural for him to have followed the 
occupation of his father, who was probably a merchant, 
but it was decided to send him away to be educated 
for a rabbi, a profession which combined the training 
and work of our minister, lawyer, and teacher in one. 

The institutions of higher education for Jews were 
in Jerusalem, and the fact that young Paul had a married 


156 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


sister living in that city probably facilitated his residence 
there. The two most famous schools in Jerusalem, the 
one liberal and the other conservative, were those of 
Hillel and Shammai. Paul attended the school of Hillel 
and his teacher was Gamaliel I, the greatest rabbi of 
that school, whose reputation is indicated by the state- 
ment in the Mishna that ‘fat his death reverence for 
the law ceased and purity and abstinence died away.” 

The fact that Paul was sent to the liberal school 
indicates that his home training while strictly Jewish 
was yet not of the narrowest type. Gamaliel was one 
of few Jewish rabbis to use Greek literature, although 
some acquaintance with Greek literature and customs 
seems to have been necessary for members of the San- 
hedrin. He is represented in Acts as a broad-minded, 
courageous leader. When other members of the San- 
hedrin “were so furious that they determined to make 
away with the apostles, a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin 
called Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, who was highly 
respected by all the people, got up and said: ‘Let these 
men alone. If their project or enterprise springs from 
men it will collapse; while if it really springs from God, 
you will be unable to put it down. You may even find 
yourselves fighting against God.’”’ Paul’s famous speech 
at Athens reflects a like breadth, and it is by no means im- 
possible that the tolerance of his great teacher was among 
the influences that contributed to his later thought. 

In this school Paul acquired a thorough knowledge 
of the Old Testament and the power of sustained thought 
as well as the peculiar rabbinical methods of argumenta- 
tion which appear in his Epistles. The content of the 
teaching of the school was the Law and the Prophets 


THE NEW LEADER 157 


and the comments of the wise men of Israel. It thus 
included law, theology, philosophy, and history. ‘The 
method consisted of discussions and rapid questions and 
answers between students and teachers, and is illustrated 
by Luke’s account of Jesus’ visit to the Temple at the 
age of twelve where his parents ‘‘found him seated among 
the teachers listening to them and asking questions till 
all the hearers were amazed at the intelligence of his 
own answers.” 

The school of Shammai was devoted to the legalistic 
aspects of the Jewish religion, especially its ceremonial 
requirements. In the school of Hillel these were not 
neglected but the ethical and spiritual teachings of the 
great prophets were emphasized, such as that of Micah 
when he says: “‘With what shall I come before Jehovah ? 
Will he be pleased with thousands of sacrifices? What 
does he require of thee but to do right, to love kindness 
and to walk humbly with thy God ?” 

As a Hellenist by early residence Paul would be 
interested in the world-propaganda of the Pharisees 
who ‘‘traversed sea and land to make one proselyte”’ 
with a success indicated in the statement in Acts that, 
at the time of the Pentecost following the Crucifixion, 
“there were devout Jews from every nation under 
heaven staying in Jerusalem.” In all the Jewish 
teachings there was intense emphasis on monotheism, 
and this fact had a great world-appeal in Paul’s day. 
Thus it may be seen that, despite all the narrowness 
of his Jewish education, it had three outstanding excel- 
lencies which gave Paul extraordinary preparation for 
his task, namely, an ethical atmosphere, a world-view, 
and a pure monotheism. 


158 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Paul’s statement that he was ‘‘brought up” in Jeru- 
salem at the feet of Gamaliel indicates that he was sent 
there when quite young, probably in his thirteenth year 
when he became a “‘son of the law,” and that he remained 
there until his education was completed. After this 
he would naturally return to his home in Tarsus where 
he learned his trade. It would be in accord with his 
cosmopolitan point of view to take advantage of his 
residence in Tarsus to gain some knowledge of Greek 
culture at the famous university in that city. 

We find him in Jerusalem a few years after the Cruci- 
fixion, when the early disciples were beginning to be 
noticed by the authorities. That he was not there during 
Jesus’ ministry is clearly indicated by the fact that he 
makes no reference to having seen him, although there 
was often much urgency for such a statement. When 
charged by his enemies, especially at Corinth, with not 
being a genuine apostle because he had not seen Jesus, he 
refers only to the appearance after the Crucifixion. He 
may have returned to Jerusalem to become rabbi of the 
Ciliclan synagogue there, in which capacity his remark- 
able talents would quickly bring him into prominence. 

As rabbi of the Cilician synagogue and member of 
the Sanhedrin, full of zeal for the religion of his fathers, 
it was natural that he should take a prominent part in 
persecuting the upstart sect that was championed by 
the eloquent Hellenist, Stephen, who had gone from one 
Hellenistic synagogue to another preaching the messiah- 
ship of Jesus and spiritual religion and condemning 
pharisaic legalism. One of these synagogues was the 
Cilician, and Paul was brought into collision with Stephen 
and led the attack on him. He saw that everything 


THE NEW LEADER 159 


was done according to the Jewish law. He took the 
garments of the witnesses that they might throw with 
greater precision. His zeal in this case brought him into 
prominence in the Sanhedrin, and he was given the 
leadership in stamping out the heresy. 

Paul persecuted the disciples with a good conscience. 
“T once believed it my duty indeed,” he afterward 
wrote, “actively to oppose the name of Jesus.” He 
thought that in so doing he offered acceptable service 
to God. As a persecutor he had considerable success. 
Luke tells us that the persecution was ‘‘severe’” and 
that ‘‘Paul devastated the church.” Paul himself 
says: ‘I persecuted this way of religion to the death.” 
“There was not a synagogue where I did not often 
punish them and force them to blaspheme and in my 
frantic fury I persecuted them even to foreign towns.” 
He went to Damascus, evidently, because the disciples 
who were obnoxious to the Jewish authorities were 
“all scattered” from Jerusalem. However, the perse- 
cution seems not long to have survived the departure 
of its leading spirit, and, when he returned three years 
afterward,Peter and others were going about and preach- 


ing as usual. 
2, HIS CALL 


‘‘God who set me apart from my very birth and 
called me by his grace chose to reveal his son within me.” 
These are the words in which Paul himself refers to 
his conversion, of which more is written in the New 
Testament than of any other like event. It was the 
most significant occurrence in the history of the church. 
It led to a complete change in Paul’s career. The fierce 
persecutor became the enthusiastic disciple and promoter 


160 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


and the chief factor in determining the character and 
course of Christianity. 

Paul had hoped to exterminate Christianity but a_ 
cause thrives on persecution. ‘‘Those who were scat- 
tered went everywhere preaching the gospel.” ‘He 
secured a commission from the Sanhedrin empowering 
him to put any Man or woman in chains whom he could © 
find belonging to the Way and bring them to Jerusalem.” 
What was his state of mind as he set out for Damascus ? 
We learn from his letters that he was magnanimous 
and tender-hearted. Yet he was engaged in a fierce 
and brutal persecution. That he had compunctions is 
strongly indicated by the words that came to him in his 
vision later: ‘‘You hurt yourself by kicking at the goad,” 
and especially by the autobiographical statement in his 
letter to the Romans (7:7-25). He was evidently 
trying to extinguish his doubts in his intense activity. 
During the journey to Damascus, however, 150 miles 
through difficult roads, over steep hills, a journey intoler- 
ably slow on camels, occupying at least six days, he was 
compelled to take time to think. 

Paul must have had several outstanding reasons 
for doubt with regard to his course of action. That 
he had become dissatisfied with the Law is seen from 
the seventh chapter of his letter to the Romans. He 
writes: 


Had it not been for the law I would not have known what sin 
meant. Thus I would never have known what it is to covet 
unless the law had said, ““You must not covet.” The command 
gave me an impulse to sin. .... Sin sprang to life and I died. 
. « « - 90 this is my experience of the law. I want to do what is 
right but evil is continually suggested to me. I cordially agree 
with God’s law so far as my inner self is concerned, but then I 


THE NEW LEADER 161 


find quite another law in my members which conflicts with the 
law of my mind and makes me prisoner to sin’s law that resides 
in my members..... Miserable wretch that I am, who will 
rescue me from this body of death ? 


Here he is interpreting his early experience in the light 
of his later knowledge. He had begun to doubt if a 
righteousness of forms and ceremonies was acceptable 
to God. There were at least some periods in his thinking 
when the righteousness of Judaism seemed to be a 
complete failure. The liberal teaching of the school 
of Hillel was having its effect. The fact that he was 
troubled shows the sincerity of his religious convictions. 
At first he thought the mere observance of the ceremonial 
law was all that was necessary to secure the favor of 
God. Then came a time when the negative commands 
of the Law suggested evil. What was forbidden became 
interesting. He began to think of and to practice it. 
He saw that he had broken the Law and so was under 
condemnation. ‘Then came despair and he saw no way 
of deliverance from spiritual death. ‘‘Sin sprang to 
life,’ he said, ‘‘and I died.” 

The martyrdom of Stephen too must have had an 
influence on his keen mind and heart. Like himself 
Stephen was in all probability a Hellenist by birth and 
early residence, earnest and eloquent. Stephen’s argu- 
ments for spiritual religion recalled the liberal teaching 
of Gamaliel. It is probable that it was from Paul on 
whose memory it must have been indelibly impressed 
that Luke got his vivid picture of the stoning. Paul 
saw the look of glory on Stephen’s face as if the very light 
from heaven streamed upon it. ‘All who sat in the 
Sanhedrin fixed their eyes upon him and saw that his 


162 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


face shone like the face of an angel.” As Tennyson 
says: ‘‘God’s glory smote him in the face.” “Look!” 
said Stephen, “‘I see heaven opened and the Son of Man 
standing at God’s right hand!” How striking a fore- 
taste of Paul’s own vision later, and how clear an indi- 
cation of its nature. 

Still another influence against satisfaction in the Law 
must have been the attitude of the persecuted Christians, 
of Stephen as well as all the others. He heard them 
preach Jesus and saw them die with forgiveness for 
their murderers on their lips. ‘‘Lord let not this sin 
stand against them’ was a new note in religion. 
Their rite of baptism appealed to him as a striking symbol 
of death to the old life of sin and resurrection to a new 
life of purity. He came upon them in their happy 
celebration of the Last Supper as a beautiful symbol 
of brotherhood. He heard them pray for their persecu- 
tors and quote the loving, sympathetic, thrilling, hopeful 
words of Jesus. No doubt the question came to him: 
““What if they are right?” To stifle his doubts he had 
pressed on in fierce persecution. But now he was com- 
pelled to take time to think, and no doubt the question 
came to him again: “‘What if they are right?” The fact 
that he was traveling at noonday indicates unusual haste 
as it was the custom to rest and sleep at the noon hour, 

At the end of a week of such thoughts as these, moving 
slowly across the desert sands, he came in sight of lovely, 
glittering Damascus, the “‘eye of the East,” the ‘‘ Paradise 
of God,” on the beautiful rich ridge between the rivers 
Abana and Pharphar, where the disciples were trembling 
and praying for deliverance. Paul says, as recorded in 
Acts: 





THE NEW LEADER 163 


Suddenly at midday on the road I saw a light from heaven 
more dazzling than the sun flash round me and my fellow travelers. 
We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in 
Hebrew, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? You hurt 
yourself by kicking at the goad.” ‘‘Who are you?” I asked, and 
the Lord said, ‘‘I am Jesus and you are persecuting me. Now 
get up and stand on your feet for I have appeared to you in order 
to appoint you to my service as a witness to what you have seen 
and to the visions you will have of me.” . . . . As I could not see 
by reason of the dazzling glare of that light my companions took 
me by the hand and so I came to Damascus. .... Therefore I 
did not disobey the heavenly vision. 

Paul’s own accounts in his letters—the earliest 
accounts of the event, written about thirty years before 
Acts—show what the vision meant to him. In Galatians 
he refers to it as the time “‘when God chose to reveal 
his Son within him.” To the Corinthians he writes: 
“Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our 
Lord?” And again, when giving a list of the appear- 
ances of Jesus after the Resurrection, he says: ‘Last 
of all, as it were to one of untimely birth, he appeared 
to me also.”’ He probably had the same experience 
in mind when he wrote: ‘‘God who said ‘Light shall 
shine out of darkness’ has shone within my heart to 
illuminate men with the knowledge of God’s glory in 
the face of Jesus Christ.” Here he seems to have in 
mind the face of Jesus as he had seen it before he was 
blinded by the glaring light of his vision. 

Nothing is said of the nature of the appearance but 
it can be inferred from the passage in his letter to the 
Corinthians where he is answering objectors to the 
Resurrection with reference to “‘what kind of a body” 
the dead have when they rise. He says: “It is sown 
(buried) an animal body, it rises a spiritual body. .... 


164 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” 
In the Galatian account, the earliest we have and the 
most complete from Paul’s own pen, it is not necessary 
to understand that all the details are given, but by reason 
of the controversial nature of the letter we certainly 
can understand that what Paul gives is what he regards 
as fundamental. This is the revelation of God’s son 
“within him.’ It was a wonderful and startling vision 
of Jesus. As he had been ‘“‘seen by Cephas, then by 
the twelve, and by over five hundred brothers all at 
once,” so now he was seen by Paul. Stephen’s vision 
was now his. Like Peter he never doubted again. 
Jesus became his Messiah and the Master of his life. 
He was transformed into a dynamo of evangelical power 
to bring the ‘“‘good news”’ to all the world. 

That with the vision came the conviction of his mis- 
sion to the Gentiles is indicated by the words quoted in 
Acts as coming from Jesus: ‘‘I will rescue you from the 
people and from the Gentiles to whom J send you that 
their eyes may be opened and that they may turn from 
darkness to light.”” The vision and the mission are also 
associated together in his account in the letter to the 
Galatians where he says: ‘‘God chose to reveal his son 
in me that I might preach him to the Gentiles.” He 
refers to this conviction often in his letters. This is 
what we might expect; for Paul was from the gentile 
world and his environment and training had been such 
as to give him a world point of view. 


3. HIS PROBATION 


The good news which I preach is not a human affair; not from 
men as a source, nor by instruction as a method did I receive it. 
I had it by revelation of Jesus Christ. .... The God who had 


THE NEW LEADER 165 


set me apart from my very birth called me by his grace and when 
he chose to reveal his Son within me that I might preach him to 
the Gentiles, instead of consulting with any human being, instead 
of going up to Jerusalem, to see those who had been apostles 
before me, I went off at once into Arabia and on my return I 
came back to Damascus. 


In these words Paul asserts his independence of the other 
apostles. Like Moses, Elijah, and other great souls, 
like his Master, Jesus himself, who sought solitude for 
meditation over a great life’s task, so Paul, after his vision 
on the Damascus road, where his whole career was 
abruptly changed and he received his call to promote 
the cause he had been persecuting and carry the ‘good 
news” of Jesus as Messiah to the nations, ‘‘went off at 
once to Arabia.” 

In all probability he went to the region of Mount 
Sinai where Elijah had retired in the great crisis of his 
life, and where Moses had stood face to face with God 
and received the Law, the religion of his fathers. Here 
in the solitudes of nature he thought out his message— 
“his gospel’’—in communion with his new-found Master. 
Only shallow souls plunge immediately into a task after 
such a crisis as that through which he had passed. Paul’s 
“good news” must be his own—a vital message from his 
own soul. He had also to think out and plan his mighty 
campaign for carrying the “good news” to the Gentiles. 
It may well have been a temptation period like that of 
Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. At any rate, it 
was similar in that here he decided on his message 
and plan of operation. No mention is made in Acts 
of this retirement but this is in accord with the author’s 
method. He makes no mention of Paul’s letters and 
passes over in silence all incidents and episodes that do 


166 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


not seem to him to be of significance in view of the — 
purpose of his narrative. 
We do not know how long he was in Arabia, but — 
when he felt that he was ready he “‘came back to Damas- ~ 
cus” and “lost no time in preaching throughout the — 
synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God, to the amaze- . 
ment of all his hearers who said: ‘Is not this the man who — 
in Jerusalem harried those who invoke this name, who 
came here for the express purpose of carrying them all © 
in chains to the high priests?’ The Jews were not 
able to meet his arguments. He “put them in confusion — 
by his proofs that Jesus was the Messiah.” ; 
He must have had considerable success because the — 
Jews became so enraged that they formed a plot to kill © 
him and enlisted the co-operation of the state officials, in — 
all probability on the ground that Paul was likely to stir — 
up a revolution. He says later, when writing to the 
Corinthians: ‘In Damascus the ethnarch had patrols © 
out in the city to arrest me but I was lowered in a © 
basket through a loophole in the wall und so managed — 
to escape his clutches.” Acts tells us that the gates of © 
the city were “watched night and day.” The fact that — 
Paul gives the details so long afterward shows what a — 
vivid effect his humiliating experience with his country- © 
men had upon him. This experience was typical, for — 
Jewish jealousy and hatred followed him everywhere. 
“Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to © 
make the acquaintance of Cephas,” Paul writes to the © 
Galatians. When he was driven from Damascus he 
seized the opportunity to visit Jerusalem and see Peter, — 
It is natural that he should want to talk with the leading — 
disciple of Jesus. In the two weeks he spent with Peter | 





THE NEW LEADER att 


he no doubt went into all the details of Jesus’ life and got 
Peter’s story of the “good news,” perhaps very much as 
we have it in Mark. While he disclaims receiving the 
gospel from men—meaning not chiefly historical facts 
but the way of salvation—he expressly states when , 
writing to the Corinthians that he had “passed on” to 
them what he had “received”; namely, certain salient 
facts of Jesus’ life and teaching. 

During this time too it is quite likely that he gave 
Peter some idea of his own world-view, and this may 
have helped Peter to take the step he later took with 
Cornelius. It was natural too for Paul at this time to 
enter into “conversations and arguments with the 
Hellenists” in Jerusalem. They soon became enraged 
with him, as with Stephen before him, and formed a 
plot to kill him. When he heard of it through the 
disciples, true to his nature, he wanted to stay on in 
spite of it, but in a vision in the Temple the commission 
came to him again even more urgently to go “to the 
Gentiles.” So “‘the disciples took him down to Caesarea 
and sent him off to Tarsus.” 

In the ‘‘districts of Syria and Cilicia,” his native 
province and the one between that and Palestine, Paul 
spent about seven years about which we know very little. 
In his letter to the Galatians he says: ‘‘The Christian 
churches of Judea .... heard ‘our former persecutor 
is now preaching the faith he once persecuted,’ which 
made them praise God for me.” This preaching was 
in Syria and Cilicia. The account in Acts does not 
mention this work but indirectly confirms it by saying 
that at a later time “he made his way through Syria and 
Cilicia strengthening the churches.”’ He must have 


168 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


founded them himself as it was his rule ‘‘not to build 
on another man’s foundation.” We may understand, 
then, that during these seven years Paul preached to 
the Greeks in his home province and Syria with consider- 
able success, and that while it was a period of training 
for a larger work it was by no means insignificant. 

In this period probably occurred many of the trials 
and sufferings mentioned in writing to the Corinthians 
~--the scourgings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, experiences 
with robbers and false brothers, sleepless nights, hunger 
and thirst, cold, nakedness, and anxiety-—-surely a fitting 
training school for the “world’s greatest missionary.” 
During this time too, according to his statement in Il 


Corinthians, he had a remarkable vision in which he was ~ 


“caught up into Paradise and heard secrets no human 
lips can repeat.” This was evidently a still greater 
vision of Jesus as the Messiah and an encouragement 
to his faith in his world-mission. 

It was at the end of this preparatory period that 
Barnabas “found him” and brouzht him to Antioch 
to help him in the great work that had been begun 
there among the Greeks. Barnabas probably wanted 
him particularly for this work because he knew of his 
views and of his success among the Greeks of his home 
province. Here, as we have seen before, they worked 


for a year with such success that necessity arose for — 


the new name “Christians” to designate the large com- 
munity of Greek disciples and distinguish them from 
the Jews. 

During this time of residence in Antioch, Paul and 
Barnabas were intrusted with a contribution to the poor 


in Jersusalem made by the disciples in Antioch during _ 


THE NEW LEADER 169 


a time of famine. ‘This is notable as being the first relief 
work done by an organized body of Christians, and 
no doubt it created a good feeling on the part of the 
Jerusalem church and made it less suspicious, for a time 
at least, of gentile Christianity. It probably also helped 
Paul later when he had to plead before the mother- 
church the right of the Gentiles to be recognized as 
disciples. 

This period of comparative obscurity was a season 
of training in and for active service. Paul may or may 
not have studied at the Greek university in Tarsus 
but he certainly sat at the feet of his Master, of whom he 
says: ‘Whose I am and whom I serve,” and perfected 
his great world-message which was destined to make 
Christianity a great world-religion. 


4. HIS MESSAGE 


“T am proud of the Good News, it is God’s saving 
power for everyone who has faith, for the Jew first but 
for the Greek as well. God’s righteousness is revealed 
in it arising out of faith and tending to produce faith— 
as it is written, ‘By faith shall the righteous live.’”’ 
Thus does Paul introduce his theme in his letter to the 
Romans, which corresponds to Jesus’ Sermon on the 
Mount in that it sets forth his message in fullest form. 

The theme of the Sermon on the Mount is righteous- 
ness, or that conduct of life which issues in the character 
that makes a man acceptable to God. Jesus said, after 
summarizing the character of the citizens of the King- 
dom, ‘‘For, I tell you, unless your righteousness excels 
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you will 
never get into the Kingdom of God.” This also is 


170 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Paul’s great theme and his message or “‘gospel”’ is in 
essence the same as that of Jesus, although he sometimes 
clothes it in rabbinical dress because of his training, or 
because of the arguments he is answering. By the faith 
through which men become acceptable to God he means 
the same thing as does Jesus when he says: ‘‘ Whoever 
will not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will 
never get into it at all.” 

Like other ancient teachers, and especially like Jesus, 
Paul uses striking picture language to convey and illus- 
trate his ideas. The interpretation of this language 
literally has given rise to theological dogmas which have 
covered up his real message. Jesus used very familiar fig- 
ures drawn from everyday life, but Paul, because of his 
intense training in the Law, takes his figures from law 
and expresses his thought in legal terminology. To 
illustrate his conception of salvation or messianic deliver- 
ance from sin he uses several striking terms of this kind. 

One of these terms is redemption or ransom. “‘All 
have sinned” he says, “and have failed to attain the 
approval of God, but are justified gratuitously by his 
grace through the redemption provided in Jesus Christ.” 
This manifestly figurative language refers to the familiar 
custom in the Roman world of Paul’s day of the emanci- 
pation of slaves. There were great numbers of slaves 
and many of them purchased their freedom or were 
“bought with a price’ by some friend or bequeathed 
freedom by their owners. The use of this figure in this 
particular connection may have been suggested to Paul 
by Jesus’ words as reported in our earliest source: “The 
Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve and 
to give his life as a ransom for many slaves.” 





THE NEW LEADER 171 


In this connection it should be remembered that 
in Roman households in Paul’s day there were two 
distinct classes of dependents—the children of the head 
of the house and the slaves. This distinction was so 
clearly drawn that the word for children was /iberi, 
meaning “free persons.’ Accordingly, with Paul the 
terms ‘‘sons”’ and ‘“‘free men” are synonymous. He 
describes men who do not have the right attitude toward 
God but regard him as a tyrannical taskmaster and are 
hostile to him, as being ‘‘under” or subject to “sin” 
(literally, error), and consequently as being ‘‘slaves,”’ 
and teaches that in order to become “‘free”’ oe must 
become “‘sons”’ of God. 

Consequently, Paul means that Jesus sets men free 
or ‘‘redeems” them from the bondage to sin in which 
state they are, by reason of their legalistic conception 
of their relationship to God, the terrible burden of which 
he himself had experienced—that conception which 
causes them to regard God as a tyrant and taskmaster 
and so to fear and hate him—by showing them how to 
become sons and so freemen. ‘This is done through the 
‘“‘good news” in which Jesus teaches the father-love 
of God. ‘The death of Jesus, resulting from his efforts 
as God’s servant and representative to teach men God’s 
true character and attitude and their consequent proper 
attitude to him, proves God’s love for men. “The 
God,” Paul says, ‘‘who did not spare his own Son but 
gave him up for us all, surely he will give us everything 
besides.”’. In view of this, they are brought to love him 
in return and so to become his sons. Consequently, 
Jesus may be said to have “‘redeemed us from the curse 
of the Law” or to have secured for us ‘‘redemption 


iyo THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


through his blood” [i.e., his death] by bringing us from 
the bondage of slavery to the freedom of sonship. 
Another favorite term of the apostle is justification. 
This figure is taken from the ancient law courts where 
the accused was not acquitted until the requirements of 
the law were satisfied by his being proved innocent or 
the penalty remitted because of palliating circumstances 
or forgiveness by the injured party. Paul says: ‘‘We 
are justified by faith,” or in a clearer translation, 
‘““We are acquitted as a result of faith.” That is to 
say, we are pronounced righteous or acceptable to God 
and accordingly acquitted not when we have a cer- 
tain number of deeds of obedience to statutes to our 


credit but when we come to have the right attitude | 


toward God, the attitude of faith or filial love and 
trust. 

This attitude is brought about by the “good news” 
of Jesus Christ, who shows by his life and death God’s 
love to men and so leads them in return to love him and 
trust him or to have faith in him. As soon as men 
take this attitude they become ‘‘sons of God” and so 
free men ‘‘in” (under the leadership of or in the domain 
of) Jesus Christ, and in consequence acceptable to God 
and acquitted of all sin, or, in other words, forgiven. 
That justification and forgiveness are with Paul the same 
thing as is seen from his statement in Romans that 
‘a man who believes in God who justifies the ungodly 
has his faith counted to him for righteousness, just as 
David himself describes the bliss of the man who has 
righteousness counted to him by God apart from what 
he does—‘Blessed are they whose breaches of the law 
are forgiven, whose sins are covered.’’’ It should be 


) 


THE NEW LEADER 173 


remembered, however, that both terms are not merely 
negative, but positive, involving approval. 

Still another term is reconciliation. Paul says: 

If while we were hostile to God we were reconciled to him 

through the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled 
shall we be saved by his life. Not only so but we triumph in 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we now enjoy our 
reconciliation. .. .. God has reconciled us to himself through 
Christ and has given us the ministry of this reconciliation namely, 
how that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. 
.. »- On Christ’s behalf, therefore, we come as ambassadors; 
God, as it were, entreating through us, we beseech you, be recon- 
ciled to God. 
Here, like the prodigal son, the sinner has wandered 
away from God and has the attitude of an enemy or 
alien. The love of Jesus as established in his death and 
continually exhibited in his life brings him to see the 
father-love of God and he comes back home. Closely 
allied in Paul’s thought to reconciliation is the term 
“‘propitiation.” He says that “God set forth Jesus 
in his blood |i.e., his death] as a means of propitiation 
through faith,’ meaning that the receptive, loving, 
and obedient attitude of faith on the part of men which 
is brought about by the love of God, as exhibited in 
Jesus’ death makes it possible for God to be propitious 
or merciful and to accept them as sons. 

It will be noticed that in all these figures Jesus is 
represented as the intermediary between God and man. 
Emancipation, justification, or acquittal and recon- 
ciliation are brought about by bringing men into the 
right attitude toward God—the natural attitude of 
children to their father. This is done through the 
“good news” of Jesus’ life and supreme act of self- 


174 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


sacrificing love in which he demonstrated and exem- 
plified God’s father-love for men. Paul speaks of the 
spirit of Jesus dwelling in the heart of the man who 
accepts his message causing him to become like Jesus, 
to partake of his very nature and thus to become a 
‘“‘son of God” and in consequence to be delivered from 
the bondage of sin. “For the sons of God,” he says, 
‘‘are those who are guided by the spirit of God. You 
have received no slavish spirit that would make you 
relapse again into fear; you have received the spirit 
of sonship. And when we cry Abba! Father! it is God’s 
spirit testifying with ours that we are his children, and 
if children, heirs as well, heirs of God along with Christ.’’ 

Paul’s message is more completely set forth in Romans 
than in any other of his writings. This is largely due to 
the fact that he had never been with them and had never 
preached to them before writing this letter, and in con- 
sequence he could not assume that they knew anything of 
‘his gospel.”’ His object in writing this letter was to set 
forth the principles of the free spiritual gospel which he 
preached in order to fortify them against Judaistic 
legalism which might find its way there before he came. 
He was well aware too of the danger before him. It was 
written just before his last visit to Jerusalem. He must 
have felt that there was a strong probability that he might 
meet with death at the hands of his fanatical country- 
men, and so never have the opportunity of visiting 
Rome. He therefore took this means of giving to the 
Christians in the world’s capital, because he considered 
it vital, his own conception of the true gospel, a system- 
atic presentation and defense of a world-religion for all 
nations without racial conditions. 


THE NEW LEADER 175 


In this letter Paul’s starting-point is “righteousness,” 
by which he means that conduct of life which makes 
men acceptable to God and secures his favor and bless- 
ing; in other words, that which is right or good. This 
righteousness or way of life is ‘‘revealed in the Gospel,’’ 
or “good news,” which is for all men, Jews and Greeks. 
Through the Christ, as set forth in the ‘good news,” 
God has shown all men how to secure this righteousness 
and so to become “righteous”’ or right in their attitude 
toward God. Sin is universal. All men are under 
condemnation. The Gentiles are guilty and the Jews 
as well. The former have failed to keep ‘‘the law 
written on their hearts,’ the latter, that ‘“‘written on 
tables of stone.”’ The Law made men conscious of sin, 
pointed it out, defined it. Men were attracted by it 
and became slaves to it. But the Law did not point 
the way to freedom. It showed them only that they 
were under condemnation. 

“But now,” Paul says, ‘‘We have a righteousness 
coming from God, disclosed apart from law altogether; 
it is attested by the Law and the Prophets but it is a 
righteousness coming from God which comes by believing 
in Jesus Christ. And it is meant for all who have faith. 
No distinction is made. All have sinned, all come short 
of the glory of God but in his loving kindness they are 
acquitted freely through the ransom provided in Christ 
Jesus.”” Paul means that Jesus in the “good news” 
shows the way out of the bondage of sin by teaching 
men God’s fatherhood and showing them how to become 
his sons by assuming the night attitude toward him, 
the receptive and obedient attitude of love and trust 
which a normal son should have to a normal father. 


176 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


As soon as they have this attitude they become God’s 
sons, and as such they love God and so “‘fulfill the Law” 
and are ‘‘no longer in bondage to sin.” They are 
“not subject to law but subject to grace,” that is to say, 
to the loving favor of God. 

Thus the true righteousness which makes acceptable 
to God is “apart from law altogether’ and “comes 
through faith.” By faith Paul does not mean mere 
intellectual assent but that attitude which causes a 
son to do his father’s will gladly and spontaneously 
because he loves and trusts him. What he means by 
faith he illustrates by the case of Abraham with which 
the Jews were so familiar. Abraham became acceptable 
to God (i.e., righteous) because of his faith or filial 
attitude of trustful obedience before the Law was given. 
Those who secure this righteousness by means of their 
faith or filial attitude are set free from sin, law, and 
death. They are zm Christ Jesus (that is to say, in 
his domain or sphere of influence) and are no longer 
under control of the flesh (lower nature) but under 
control of the spirit (higher nature). Christ’s spirit 
dwells in them and they become like him, and so become 
“sons of God’’ with all the love and care and blessing 
that relation implies, “heirs along with Christ.” “All 
things work together for their good.” They rise above 
the ills of life and become ‘‘more than conquerors,” 
never to be separated from God’s love. 

Paul’s teaching with regard to the relationship of 
Christians to one another is the same in principle as — 
the Golden Rule of Jesus. He urges modesty and 
moderation. He illustrates the duties of members in 
the Christian organization by the human body. “Just 


THE NEW LEADER ri 


as in the one human body we have many members and 
these members do not all have the same function, so too 
although we are many we form one body in Christ and 
are severally members one of another.’”’ As in the case 
of the members of the human body, each member of the 
Christian body must do diligently the task for which he 
is best fitted, whether it be more or less important, if 
there is to be an effective organization. He has no use 
for shallowness or insincerity. ‘‘Let your love,” he 
says, ‘be a real thing.” 

With regard to the Christian’s relation to outsiders 
his teaching is the same as that of Jesus—‘‘Good for 
evil.” ‘‘Bless those who persecute you,” he says, 
“bless them instead of cursing them..... Never 
pay back evil for evil to anyone; aim to be above 
reproach in the eyes of all. Be at peace with all men 
if possible, so far as it depends on you.” 

His teaching with regard to the relation of Christians 
to the state might be stated in Jesus’ words: “Give 
to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; give to God what 
belongs to God.” Christians are to respect but not 
to fear the law of the state; ‘‘ Magistrates,” he says, 
‘are no terror to an honest man, but toa bad man. If 
you want to avoid being alarmed at the government 
authorities, lead an honest life.” It was this teaching 
that finally won its way to the very throne of the Roman 
Empire. 

Thus Paul’s message when divested of its rabbinical 
dress and modern theological dogmatism is seen to be 
the same as that of his Great Master. Jesus said: 
‘All the law and the prophets are summed up in two 
precepts— You must love God with all your heart and 


178 


THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


you must love your fellow men as yourself.’”’ Paul says: 
“He who loves his fellow men has fulfilled the law.” 
“All the commandments,” he says, “are summed up 
in this one phrase, “you must love your neighbor as 
yourself.’ Love never wrongs a neighbor; that is why 
love is the fulfilment of the law.” 


Such is Paul’s great message, untrammeled by forms, 


rites, ceremonies, or dogmas, and so a universal message 
for all men to bring them from slavery to sonship, 
“from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
to God.” 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 


. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 


pp. 113-72. 


2. Ramsay, St. Paw the Traveler and Roman Citizen, pp. 29-46. 


. Kent, Life and Teachings of the Apostles, pp. 68-80, 108, 100, 


162-68, 186-90, 195-200. 


. Robinson, Life of Paul, pp. 25-73. 
. Burton, “Saul’s Experience on the Road to Damascus,” 


Biblical World, January, 18093. 


. Gilbert, Bible for Home and School, “Acts,” pp. 99-106, 123, 


124, 207-10, 233-38. 


. Farrar, Life and Work of St. Paul, chaps. ii-iv, ix-xiii. 
. Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, chaps. 


ji-iv. 


. Deissmann, Si. Paul, pp. 119-24, 139-62. 

. Ramsay, “Tarsus,” in Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible. 

. Bacon, The Story of St. Paul, pp. 13-67. 

. Schtirer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus 


Christ, Div. 2, Vol. I, p. 176. 


CELA BiH RSX 


THE NEW PROGRAM 


HOW CHRISTIANITY WAS CARRIED OVER 
THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

1. Galatia 
Acts 13:1-—14:27; Gal. 1:1-5;'.3:1-5; 4:8-20; IT, Cor. 
i ed 

2. Macedonia 
Acts 15:36-—17:15; I Thess. 1:1—2:14; II Thess. 3:6-15; 
IGCormir6-10; 4 Li Gon 1£:05 Romy16: 5; Colfvasrs: 
Phil. 4:16 

3. Achaia 
Acts 17:16—18:22; I Thess. 3:1, 2, 6, 7; I Cor. 1:4-0, 
TASTOMI2Os a ci —5 5113s Ly) Zones VETOS LOS SG mh LEM COrs 
I1;8-10 

4.,ASIa. ) > 

Acts 18223 ——21:163\"I Cor)! 1: 10—-2: 7: 3: 2-8: 531-0; 
pete Chaps. 230s, cop) 1L Cor. chaps 1o; 13h ew et.oy 
in the order cited; Rom. 1:1-17; 3:19-31; 8:14-17, 
28-39; 15:14-33 

5. Rome 
Acts 21217-40; 23:12-353. 24223, 27; 2521-123 2731; 
28:14-31; Phil., entire; Philem., entire; II Tim. 1:1-4; 
4:6-18 


I. GALATIA 


Paul had now been a Christian about twelve years. 
He had proclaimed the message throughout his own and 
the neighboring province and was ready for new fields. 
The outcome of his missionary enterprises reveals a 
well-thought-out plan. In the first place, his aim was 
to plant churches in strategic centers of the various 
provinces of the Empire; in the second place, to 
strengthen their organization until they could stand 


179 


180 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


alone; and finally to have the surrounding regions 
evangelized from these centers. His plan embraced 
the whole Roman Empire even to its most distant 
province of Spain. 

At a meeting of five of the leaders among the Antioch 
disciples it was decided that Paul and Barnabas should 
leave Antioch ‘and carry the “good news” to other 
places. In this decision they understood, as they 
always did, that they were guided by the Spirit. It 
should be noticed that Paul and Barnabas were not set 
apart by the church but by three companions at a 
private conference. Paul does not appear to have 
been a missionary of the Antioch church nor to have 
been supported or controlled by it. He merely made 
Antioch his headquarters. 

The first place visited was Cyprus. They “went 
through the whole island to Paphos,” the capital and 
central seat of the worship of Venus, who was reputed 
to have been born there from the sea foam. This city, 
the scene of the wildest form of licentiousness, was a 


typical instance of the need for the purifying message — 


of the “good news.” The Roman governor, Sergius 
Paulus, heard of the new teachers or “philosophers” 
and sent for them for the purpose of hearing what they 
had to say—a very natural proceeding for a Roman 
leader in those days, for the Romans were always on 
their guard against anything that might create disturb- 
ance. 

Here too Paul had a typical experience with a sorcerer. 
These sorcerers or Magi were everywhere and the 


Christian preachers had to meet them. They claimed — 


to have knowledge of spirits and ability to influence men’s 


THE NEW PROGRAM 181 


lives by their occult science. Many of them had some 
knowledge of medicine and of the science of the day, 
and probably performed many feats and effected cures 
because of their faith in the power of spirits to help 
them. The Christians had to convince men that the 
Spirit of God was all powerful and could free them from 
any evil influence. This magician became jealous of 
Paul’s influence with the governor and interfered. Paul 
was moved to exert his mighty spiritual force and 
completely silenced him. We are told that “‘the pro- 
consul believed and was astonished at the teaching of 
the Lord.” 

The next stop after leaving Cyprus was at Antioch 
of Pisidia, a city of very considerable importance, a 
Roman colony with special privileges. The experience 
of Paul and his companions here may be regarded as 
typical of that of the early Christian preachers. They 
came into the city like other travelers of whom there 
were many in that day. They found a lodging-place 
and worked at their trade until the Sabbath, when they 
went to the synagogue. As was the custom, they were 
given an opportunity to speak. “After the reading of 
the Law and the Prophets the president of the synagogue 
sent to tell them, ‘Brothers, if you have any word of 
counsel for the people, say it,’’? so Paul stood up and 
motioning with his hand, said: “Listen, men of Israel 
and you who reverence God.” Paul evidently had a 
characteristic gesture which is often referred to as here 
by the words “‘motioning with his hand.” His opening 
words addressed the two classes always to be found 
in a synagogue—Jews and the local Greeks who had 
come to believe in Jehovah as the one God but did not 


182 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


accept the rites and ceremonies of Judaism. These usu- 
ally furnished the nucleus of a new Christian community. 

When Paul began, the people at once recognized the 
words of a trained rabbi and gave special attention. 
While Luke did not hear him on this occasion he heard 
him often later and this speech of which he records 
here the chief points may be regarded as typical, not 


only of Paul’s words on such an occasion, but of the — 


message of the first Christian preachers in general. It 
begins by reciting in striking outline Jewish history 
leading up to the promise of the Messiah and then on 
until at last the startling announcement is made that 
the Messiah had come! It then briefly sketches the life, 
death, and Resurrection of Jesus and proclaims him the 
Messiah. This at once produced a sensation. During 
the following week this synagogue address was the “talk 
of the town.” 

The next Sabbath a great crowd (‘‘almost the whole 
city”) assembled in which was a large number of 
Greeks. Paul told them that his “good news” was for 
the Gentiles as well as for the Jews and “the Jews were 
filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what 
Paul had said and to abuse him.” Paul then “turned to 
the Gentiles” and many of them accepted his message 
and became disciples. The Jews then stirred up a 
riot, and Paul and his companions had to leave the city. 
It was the same almost everywhere. Paul was no coward, 
but his Master had said: “If they persecute you in one 
city flee to another.” 

The other large cities in South Galatia—Iconium, 
Lystra, and Derbe—were visited with similar experiences 
and results. In all these centers thus arose communities 





THE NEW PROGRAM 183 


of disciples similar to that in Jerusalem, which by their 
simplicity of worship and freedom from Jewish legalism 
and ceremonial rites, combined with the moral purity 
and monotheism of Judaism and the heart-satisfying 
message of Jesus, made a strong appeal to the Gentiles, 
soon eclipsed the synagogue, and sent out evangelists 
into all the surrounding country. 

At Derbe Paul was near Tarsus, his old home on the 
main route to the east, but he turned back again to the 
west, revisiting Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. Thisisa 
good example of his bravery and devotion to the churches 
he had established and of his method of work. The 
object of his second visit was to “‘strengthen the souls 
of the disciples and encourage them to hold fast to the 
faith.” He preached in Perga, which he had to omit 
before on account of illness, and then sailed back to his 
headquarters in Antioch, thus completing what is known 
as his “‘first missionary journey.” It was a long journey 
for that time, covering about 1,400 miles and occupying 
about two years, and he had met with extraordinary 


SUCCESS. 
2. MACEDONIA 


After having “spent considerable time with the 
disciples”’ at Antioch, Paul, accompanied this time by 
Silas, a leading man of the Jerusalem church, started 
off again and “‘made his way through Syria and Cilicia 
strengthening the churches” which had been founded 
during the seven years before he came to Antioch. 
This is another example of the second element in Paul’s 
plan of campaign. It was not sufficient to plant the 
gospel. He felt that strong communities must be 
established to carry on the work in surrounding regions. 


184 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


After revisiting the churches in Galatia and picking up | 


at Lystra a young Jewish convert to take with him as an 


assistant, it seems from the account in Acts that he had ~ 
in mind as on the first journey to go to Ephesus. He — 


would naturally start from Pisidian Antioch, the farthest 
west of his established churches, but he was led to 
understand that it was not the will of God that he 
should go to Ephesus at this time, so he went down 
to the old seaport of Troas, crossed over to Europe, and 
made his first stop at Philippi, ‘the foremost city of the 
district of Macedonia.”’ 


The important part women were to play in Christi- — 
anity was illustrated by the fact that the first two — 
converts in Europe were women. These were of two — 
very different types. The first was a Greek proselyte — 
named Lydia, a business woman from Thyatira in Asia. — 
She was evidently well-to-do as she had a store and a — 
residence in Philippi. When she was converted she — 
offered her house as headquarters for Paul and his — 
companions and they remained with her during their 4 
stay at Philippi, probably for several months. This — 
is an example of the custom of the early disciples of — 
meeting in private houses belonging to well-to-do — 
members, to which Paul refers in his letters in the phrase _ 


“the church in the house.” 
The second woman was a ‘‘slave girl possessed with a 


spirit of ventriloquism, a source of great profit to her k 
owners by her power of fortune-telling.” She was — 
probably very intelligent and believed that she was 9 
controlled by a spirit. Her active mind grasped the — 
truth of Paul’s message, and she followed him, calling — 
out her belief. When Paul’s tone of authority restored — 











THE NEW PROGRAM 185 


her to a normal condition of mind, she could no longer 
believe in her magical powers, and in consequence quit 
her fortune-telling and ventriloquism. This is another 
example, similar to that of the magician in Cyprus, of 
the superstitions that the early Christian preachers had 
to meet. Of course, the girl’s owners were enraged. 
“They caught hold of Paul and Silas and dragged them 
before the magistrates in the Forum.” This was the 
first attack from a gentile source. The opposition 
usually came from the Jews. 

The charge was that Paul and his companions were 
teaching customs unlawful for Romans to follow. The 
unlawful teaching was probably that Jesus was a king 
(messiah)—an intentional misrepresentation on the 
part of the Jews. As the mob rushed on them there was 
no chance to defend themselves and it would probably 
have been useless for Paul to appeal to his Roman 
citizenship because they would not listen. The magis- 
trates without trial ordered Paul and Silas to be beaten 
with rods and thrown into prison. Paul’s character 
is exhibited in the prison scene at midnight in prayer and 
singing. An earthquake occurred as frequently happened 
there and the prisoners were released. Paul was master 
of the situation and the jailer was converted. In the 
meantime Timothy and Luke had probably gotten the 
ear of the magistrates to tell them of Paul’s Roman 
citizenship and these officials came to release Paul and 
Silas and to ask them to leave town. This they did in a 
dignified manner after bidding the converts farewell at 
a meeting in Lydia’s house. 

They passed through two large cities, Amphipolis 
and Apollonia, probably because there was no synagogue 


186 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 













in them, and stopped in Thessalonica, the metropolis _ 
of Macedonia, in our time called Saloniki, and well ; 
known during the World War. Here Paul probably — 
stayed several months and had great success. In his H 
letter to them he speaks of working at his trade and of _ 
his upright life among them. As usual the Jews finally i 
raised a riot. The content of the charge was: “These 4 
upsetters of the world have come here too. They all @ 
violate the decrees of Caesar by calling someone else q 
named Jesus a_ king.” These two items were i 
undoubtedly those of the usual Jewish accusation— _ 
disturbing the peace and treason. These were the bY 
charges most likely to gain an ear from the Roman ) 
magistrates everywhere. Rome was very jealous of her — 
authority. iy 

Paul and Silas having learned from experience i 
sought safety in hiding and when night came escaped i 
to another Macedonian town called Berea, where they : 
were well received and had rest and success for a con- } 
siderable time, until Jews from Thessalonica came and " 
stirred up a riot as usual and Paul had to leave the q 
province. ! 4 

The campaign in Macedonia had been very successful. ‘ 
Philippi remained the most faithful of all his churches. ‘ 
Twice to Thessalonica and again to Corinth they sent — 
him money. When he was in prison in Rome, they sent t 
him a generous gift which called forth from him the q 
tender epistle known as “Paul’s Love Letter.” In 
Macedonia Paul proved that the gospel was adapted 
to the Greek world. It was now fully launched on its ih 
way to become a great world-religion. Here too he b 
realized his ambition to make the communities he ;, 


THE NEW PROGRAM 187 


established evangelistic centers. Paul wrote shortly 


afterward to the church at Thessalonica: ‘‘The word 








of the Lord has resounded from you throughout 
Macedonia and Achaia.”’ 


3. ACHAIA 


On leaving Macedonia Paul probably had in mind as 
his next objective Corinth, the capital of the province 
and the meeting place of travel and trade between East 
and West, but he stopped at Athens to wait for Silas 


and Timothy and “his soul was irritated at the sight of 


idols that filled the city.”” He could not refrain from 
proclaiming his message and soon became an object of 
curious attention in the market place, as in the case of 


Socrates three hundred years before. As a new lecturer, 
he was given opportunity to present his views before 


the court of Areopagus to determine whether he should 
be given the freedom of the Agora. His audience was 
composed not only of philosophers but of Athenian peo- 
ple generally. 

Paul’s speech on this occasion as reported in Acts, 
may be briefly summarized as follows: God who made 
the world is Lord of Heaven and of earth, and, as some 
Greek poets teach, all men are his children. He is not 
to be worshiped in various forms by means of images 
of human device. He overlooked the weakness of men 
in times past but now asks all men to repent and prepare 
for judgment. This brought him to “Jesus and the 
Resurrection”? and they would not hear him further but 
ridiculed the idea of ‘‘a resurrection of dead men.” 
The Acts account of the Athens visit is lifelike and vivid. 
Paul became an Athenian to the Athenians. His 


188 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


introduction on ‘‘the unknown god” was felicitous — 
and he appealed to the pride of the Athenians in his 
remark that they were “uncommonly religious.” 

Paul evidently did not stay long in Athens but went 
on to his real objective, Corinth, the metropolis of Achaia, 
wealthy and cultured and infamous for vice—the Paris 
of the ancient world. As he would need some time to 
accomplish anything in such a city, he had to work at 
his trade. He was very fortunate in finding work with 
‘‘a Jew, a native of Pontus, who had recently arrived 
from Italy with his wife Priscilla, as Claudius had 
ordered all Jews to leave Rome.” ‘The expulsion here 
referred to was in 49 A:D., so this would give about — 
50 A.D. as the date of Paul’s arrival in Corinth. Aquila — 
and Priscilla probably were Christians before Paul 
met them. He never refers to them as his converts 
and we know that there were communities of Christians 
in Rome at this time. 

Although the difficulties in the way of his gospel 
in such a city as Corinth must have seemed almost 
insurmountable, he had remarkable success. “Crispus, 
the president of the synagogue, believed in the Lord 
as did all his household, and many Corinthians believed 
and were baptized. So he settled there for a year and 
six months, teaching them the word of God.” The 
converts were mostly Greeks and largely from the lower 
class—‘‘not many leading men, not many men of good 
birth.” But there were some prominent men and 
women; for example, Erastus, the city treasurer, and 
Chloe and Stephanas, who had “households.” 

After his experience at Athens he “‘determined to be 
ignorant of everything except Jesus Christ and Jesus 





THE NEW PROGRAM 189 


Christ crucified.” He decided not to use ‘“‘elaborate 
words of philosophy.” He wrote to the Corinthian 
Christians afterward: ‘‘Jews demand miracles and 
Greeks want wisdom, but our message is Christ the 
crucified—‘a stumbling block to the Jews,’ ‘sheer folly’ 
to the Greeks but for those who are called, whether 
Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power of God and 
the wisdom of God.” 

During this period he received news from Thessalonica 
which, while very good, showed that the disciples there 
were exposed to persecution and some were grieved over 
the loss of friends who had died before the second coming 
of the Lord. He wrote the first of his letters that we 
have (I Thessalonians) and sent it by Timothy to 
encourage them and to comfort them in respect to those 
of their number who had died. A few months later, 
having heard that some had mistaken his first letter as 
teaching the immediate coming of the Lord and were 
idle and disorderly, he wrote another letter, our “II 
Thessalonians,” rebuking their idleness and urging 
calmness and industry. These letters indicate his 
constant care for the churches he had established. 

At last the Jews raised the usual demonstration 
against Paul and accused him before the Roman pro- 
consul of Achaia, Gallio, brother of the famous Seneca, 
the date of whose consulship has been determined from 
an inscription published in April, 1908, in the Report 
of the Palestine Exploration Fund, as 51-52 A.D. Gallio’s 
attitude was typical of that of the Roman government. 
He refused to listen to what he looked upon as a private 
Jewish quarrel, and he “drove them from the tribunal.” 
The attitude of the Greeks is seen from the fact that 


190 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


“they caught hold of Sosthenes, president of the syna- 
gogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal.” 

Some time after this Paul sailed back to his head- 
quarters in Antioch of Syria, accompanied as far as 
Ephesus by Aquila and Priscilla. This stay in Corinth 
was his most important success, a triumph over im- 
morality, materialism, luxury, and vice. It wasa signal 
victory in the conquest of the Roman world. Because 
of its position as a meeting-point of East and West, 
Corinth was a strategic center for the spread of the 
‘good news” over the Roman world. The journey 
covered some twenty-five hundred miles and occupied 
about two and a half years (49-51 A.D.) 


4. ASIA 


“After spending some time” again in Antioch, his 
headquarters, Paul “set out on a journey through the 
Galatian country and Phrygia, strengthening all the 
disciples.” Since he had been in Galatia disquieting 
news had come to him of the churches there having 
been visited by disciples from Jerusalem, who had tried 
to convince them that they must become Jews in order 
to secure messianic deliverance or salvation. He had 
written them a very strong letter (Galatians) to counter- 
act this propaganda, which will be discussed in the next 
chapter, and now took the first opportunity to visit 
them in person. At this time, too, he probably instructed 
them about the “collection,” a large sum of money he 
was raising from the gentile churches for the poor at 
Jerusalem in the hope of establishing better relations 
between the Jewish and gentile wings of the new move- 
ment. 


THE NEW PROGRAM IQI 


After visiting these churches he went to Ephesus, 
which he probably had in mind on his first and second 
journeys as the most strategic center in the East. It 
was the capital of Asia, the most wealthy and populous 
of the Roman provinces. After having delivered his 
message In Greece he would probably have gone directly 
to Rome had it not been for this gap in the East. 
Ephesus for centuries before this time had been the chief 
city in Asia Minor. While Tarsus was the intellectual 
center, Ephesus was the religious and commercial center, 
famous for its great temple of Artemis, one of the seven 
wonders of the ancient world, a temple, art museum, 
bank, and asylum, all in one, the repository of the great 
image of Artemis which was believed to have fallen from 
Heaven. 

An example is noted here by Luke of how Christianity 
was carried over the Empire by others than Paul. 
Soon after the arrival at Ephesus of Aquila and Priscilla, 
to whom reference has been made above, they heard 
speaking in the synagogue “a Jew called Apollos, who 
was a native of Alexandria, a man of culture, strong in his 
knowledge of the Scriptures.””’ He was very eloquent 
and surprised them by preaching “about Jesus,” but 
his knowledge of the new movement was imperfect. 
He was probably a missionary of the sect of John the 
Baptist, which seems to have maintained an existence 
independent of Christianity for several centuries. 
They “‘took him home with them and explained more 
accurately to him what the way of God really meant.” 
When Apollos heard of the large church that had been 
established in Corinth he went over there and was very 
successful, “‘for he publicly refuted the Jews with might 


192 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


and main showing from the Scriptures that the Messiah 
was Jesus.” Paul afterward wrote of his work: “I 
planted, Apollos watered.” 

Paul continued his work in Ephesus longer than in 
any other city. He taught for three months in the 
synagogue, and when strong opposition developed on 
the part of the Jews “he left them, withdrew the disciples 
and continued his argument every day from eleven to 
four in the lecture-room of Tyrannus. This went on 
for two years so that all the inhabitants of Asia, Jews as 
well as Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.” 

The manner in which his message was carried over 
this province, which was about the size of New England, 
is typical of such work in all places he visited and may be 
summarized as follows: (1) People visiting Ephesus 
and hearing Paul preach would carry the message back 
to their homes. As Ephesus was the religious and 
commercial center of the province with a world-famous 
temple and amphitheatre, people came there from all 
over the province to worship the famous goddess, to 
attend the games, or to transact business. Philemon, 
a wealthy citizen of Colossae, was one of Paul’s converts 
although Paul had never been in Colossae. (2) Paul’s 
converts would go out from the city all over the province 
as evangelists. Epaphras, one of these, was the pastor 
and probable founder of the church in Colossae. 

We learn from Acts how Paul was supported during 
this time and we may understand that the method was 
the same everywhere. By work at his trade he not only 
supported himself but contributed to the support of 
his companions. ‘This gives us some idea of his great 
activity, ability, and energy. His work, however, was 


THE NEW PROGRAM 193 


by no means uninterrupted. When writing to the 
Corinthians he mentions two occasions on which his 
life was in danger, once when “he fought with wild 
beasts”? and again when “‘he despaired of life.” He 
speaks too of having been “in jeopardy every hour” 
and of there not being a day when he was not ‘‘at 
death’s door,” of his “‘many adversaries” and his 
“sufferings.” 

We have also, in the indications in his letters of his 
communication with Corinth, a good example of how 
his “‘care of all the churches” he had previously estab- 
lished was constantly upon him: 

1. He received bad news from Corinth regarding 
immorality in the church, which was very natural for 
such a place, for they had not regarded such conduct as 
reprehensible before he came to them. In consequence, 
he wrote them a letter which has not been preserved, 
except probably a brief fragment now to be found 
interpolated into our II Corinthians (6:14—7:1), telling 
them ‘‘not to associate with the immoral.” 

2. They wrote to him a reply complaining that if 
they should follow this instruction they “would have to 
leave the world altogether’’ (an interesting comment on 
their city), and asking him certain questions about 
marriage, eating meat that had been offered to idols, 
public worship, spiritual gifts, and the Resurrection. 

3. Servants of Chloe, a prominent member of the 
church at Corinth, brought him bad news of the existence 
of four parties in the church. 

4. Paul then wrote them a second letter, which 
is preserved as our I Corinthians, to condemn the 
immoral, rebuke the party-spirit, and answer their 


194 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


questions. This letter was not well received. A man 
who was severely rebuked and sentenced rebelled against 
Paul’s authority and openly insulted him. The news 
was brought back to Paul, probably by Timothy, who 
had been sent to Corinth by Paul to exhort the church 
personally and failed to accomplish his purpose. 

5. Paul then wrote a third letter, very severe in 
tone, which he sent by Titus, an older and more experi- 
enced helper than Timothy, who should exhort them 
personally and try to win them back. This is preserved 
in our II Corinthians, chapters 10-13. 

Paul’s work at Ephesus was finally stopped by a 
riot. His preaching had had such an effect that the 
trade of the silversmiths suffered. These men were 
engaged in the lucrative business of making shrines of 
Artemis. Their leader, Demetrius, a large employer 
of labor, called the tradesmen together and stirred them 
to frenzy by a speech on the danger of losing their jobs. 
A mob of about twenty-five thousand filled the theater, 
having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, two of Paul’s 
helpers. Paul wanted to go in and speak to them but 
some friendly Roman officials held him back. Demetrius 
lost control and the mob went wild, most of them not 
knowing what it was all about. They began to cry 
out against the Jews who put forward their leading man 
of the same trade to defend them. The mob drowned 
out his voice with a great chant in honor of their goddess: 
“Great is Artemis of Ephesus.” 

After two hours they were so exhausted that the 
“secretary of state” quieted them in a sensible speech, 
telling them that Artemis was too great to be injured 
by anyone; no charge had been brought against Gaius 


THE NEW PROGRAM | 195 


and Aristarchus; Demetrius and his people should appeal 

to the courts if they had a grievance; and that there 
was danger of their being called to account by Rome for 
disturbing the peace. The crowd dispersed and Paul 
soon afterward left Ephesus of his own accord probably 
because he saw that his further presence there would 
create more disturbance and hinder his cause. 

Paul now considered that his work in the East was 
finished and he intended to go to Rome as soon as he 
could get the great ‘‘collection” ready and take it to 
Jerusalem. In order to complete this task he had yet 
to visit the churches in the provinces of Macedonia and 
Achaia. He met Titus in Macedonia on his way back 
from Corinth with the good news that the church had 
returned to its allegiance. He then wrote a fourth letter, 
our II Corinthians, chapters 1-9 (excluding the brief 
fragment referred to above), a letter ‘‘overflowing with 
joy and thankfulness.” He visited the churches in 
Macedonia and Achaia, ‘‘with much exhortation,” got 
together the ‘‘collection,” and spent some time in 
Corinth. From this city he wrote the letter to the 
Romans about 56 A.D. in order to set before the Christians 
in the world’s capital his pure gospel and to fortify 
them against Jewish legalism for fear he might never 
get there in person. Shortly after this, accompanied 
by seven delegates appointed by the various gentile 
churches of the provinces of Macedonia, Achaia, Asia, 
and Galatia to bear the ‘‘collection,” he journeyed 
back to Jerusalem. 

5. ROME 

While Luke says: “The brothers welcomed us 

gladly on our arrival in Jerusalem,” he probably refers 


196 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


only to a small group of the leaders gathered to meet 
the delegates. The indications all point to the conclusion — 
that the contribution failed in its purpose of reconciling 
the Jewish to the gentile disciples. The Jews were noted © 
for ingratitude. Instead of thanking Paul they told 
him of evil reports about him and asked him to disprove 
them. i 

As he arrived at Pentecost the city was crowded with — 
Jews from all over the Empire. After a few days some 
of his enemies from Ephesus recognized him in the 
Temple. Their hatred was intense. This was their 
opportunity. “They laid hands on him and shouted: 
Men of Israel, help! help! Here is the man who teaches 
everyone everywhere against our people, the Law and — 
this Place! And he has actually brought Greeks in- 
side the Temple and defiled this holy Place.” A mob . 
quickly gathered and Paul would have been torn to — 
pieces had he not been rescued by the Roman garrison. 
He was arrested as a disturber of the peace and sent to i 
the Roman governor at Caesarea, where he was kept in — 
prison for two years. He then exercised his right of i 
appeal to the emperor and in this way realized his 
long-cherished ambition of visiting Rome. 

Here in the world’s capital “for two full years he 
remained in his own private lodging, welcoming any who — 
came to visit him, he preached the Kingdom of God — 
and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and — 
undisturbed.” He was bound by a chain to a soldier— _ 
his right hand to the soldier’s left, as was the custom, _ 
the soldier being responsible for his prisoner with his — 
life. He preached all the time boldly, with great success, : 
to all who came to him so that he could say that his 








THE NEW PROGRAM 197 


imprisonment had “tended to advance the gospel’ 
and that the fact of its being for the sake of Christ was 
“recognized throughout the whole of the praetorian 
guard and everywhere else.” 

During this time he had constant communication 
with the churches he had established throughout the 
Empire. He wrote to the Philippians a_ beautiful 
“love letter’? of thankfulness for a gift they had sent 
him; to the Colossians he wrote to correct some false 
doctrines of which he had heard; a circular letter to 
the churches of Asia on similar topics, which has come 
to us under the name of “Ephesians”; and a tender 
little personal letter to Philemon, a leading member of 
the church in Colossae. 

We do not know the cause of the two years’ delay 
of his trial, but it would give his enemies time to collect 
evidence against him and bring witnesses from Jerusalem. 
The main charge was in all probability that of being an 
agitator and raising disturbances among the people, 
that which would most likely gain the ear of Rome and 
which his enemies could make most show of substantiat- 
ing. Although he at first had hopes of release, after a 
preliminary trial he was consigned to a much severer 
imprisonment, and wrote to his disciple Timothy that 
he expected soon to be put to death: “My time to go 
has come; I have fought the good fight; I have run 
my course; I have kept the faith.” Although his last 
campaign had not turned out as he had planned, perhaps 
his gospel radiated even more effectively from his 
imprisonment, trial, and martyrdom, and he realized his 
ambition of planting the gospel in all the strategic 
centers of the Empire. 


198 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Thus was the “good news” carried over the civilized 


world of that day by Paul and by other missionaries of 
whose work we have no definite record. An attempt has 
been made to give the plan of campaign and some 
illustrative incidents. Paul was the predominant mes- 
senger and his work may be taken as typical of that of 
the other preachers of the first century. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 


Pp. 172-92, 226-423. 


2. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, pp. 178-362. 


ies) 


Nn or 


. Robinson, Life of Paul, pp. 74-92, 111-220. 
. Kent, Work and Teachings of the Apostles, pp. 86-90, 104-109, 


135-42, 151-55, 173-79, 205-9, 216-23. 


. Bacon, Story of St. Paul, pp. 147-226. 
. Gilbert, Bible for Home and School, ‘‘Acts,” pp. 131-258. 
. Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, chaps. 


V-XXxvli, passim. 


. Farrar, The Life and Work of St. Paul, chaps. xix-xxviii, xxxi, 


Xxxiv, xl—xlv, lvii. 


. Weizsacker, The A postolic A ge of the Christian Church, I, 252-40 5. 


CEA Pe UIER OT 


THE NEW CONFLICT 


HOW THE JEWISH LEGALISTS RECEIVED 
PAUL’S MESSAGE 
1. The Judaizers 
Gal. 1:6, 7; 2:4; 3:7, 9, 143 4%10, 21-31; 5:2, 4, 11; 
O82 PACis)1 5-1, 2A 24 Matis: 17, 19 
2. The Jerusalem Conference 
Gal. 2:1-10; Acts 15:1-32 
3. The Antioch Crisis 
Gal. 2311-21 
4. The Galatian Defection 
Gal (entire;s) Cor1071;, Acts 20:4: Rom, 15:23 
5. The Corinthian Revolt 
J Gor. 1:12; Il Cor., chaps. 10-13, especially 11:4, 5, 12, 
Dees 2c tats sO. nA 25.72 2-103, Cl. Pile ts 5-75 
A very significant result of the new program that has 
just been described has been purposely left for separate 
consideration because of its vital importance to the 
understanding of the rise of Christianity and also because 
it needs a separate treatment in order to give it true 
perspective. Just as the message of Jesus was received 
with bitter jealousy and hostility by the pharisaic 
legalists, so was Paul’s message received by men of the 
same type who accepted Jesus as Messiah. It is therefore 
now necessary to give attention to this great conflict 
arising from within that threatened to destroy the 


essential character of Christianity at its very inception. 


I. THE JUDAIZERS 


“Unless you become Jews according to the custom 
of Moses you cannot be saved.”” These words of “certain 


199 


200 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


individuals who had come down from Jerusalem,” 
addressed to the Greek disciples at Antioch, sounded 
the battle cry of the opposition of the Jewish Christian 
legalists against Paul’s message to the Gentiles. The 
cause of this opposition was the same as in the case of 
Jesus—the inevitable struggle between the legalistic 
and the spiritual conceptions of religion. As in the 
case of Jesus, Paul’s message was diametrically opposed 
to that of these pharisaic legalists. There was no room 
for both points of view, and one or the other had to 
give away. It was, as it always is, a battle to the 
death. Paul calls these people “‘false brothers’ in his 
letter to the Galatians, but they are usually known as 
“‘Judaizers” from the word he used when censuring 
Peter for yielding to them on the occasion of a visit to 


Antioch, the word “Judaize” meaning to conform to — 


Jewish practices. 


These people taught that a person who desired to — 


become a Christian must first become a Jew by submit- 


ting to the distinctive Jewish rites, especially that of — 
circumcision. In other words, they taught that Christi- | 
anity was a movement within Judaism, and consequently — 
in order to get into it one must enter through the door — 


of Judaism. Their arguments were based on the Old 


Testament writings which were the only “Scriptures” — 
at that time for Christians as well as for Jews. The 
promises were made to Abraham and his descendants — 


and conditioned on circumcision, and in consequence 
messianic deliverance or salvation was only for Abra- 
ham’s children either by blood or by adoption. If, 
therefore, a Gentile would secure salvation he must 
become a son of Abraham by adoption which was 


THE NEW CONFLICT 201 


accomplished by submitting to circumcision and observ- 
ing the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law. 

The Judaizers accepted Jesus as the Messiah but 
held that he had not interfered with Judaism. They 
were sincere in their opposition to Paul, believing that 
his course would destroy the religion ‘‘once for all 
delivered”’ to their fathers. The great Temple and the 
synagogue worship would ultimately be forsaken and 
_ Judaism would be no more. The only thing to do was 
to compel everyone who desired to become a Christian 
to accept circumcision and first become a Jew. 

There were apparently good arguments which they 
could use for their contention and that they made good 
use of them is seen from Paul’s rebuttal in his letters 
to the Galatian and the Corinthian churches. They 
could cite passages from the Scriptures showing that 
“the promise” of messianic deliverance was only for 
Abraham and his seed and conditioned on the acceptance 
of circumcision as a perpetual rite for all who were 
to be included in ‘‘the Covenant” which God made with 
Abraham. They could say that Jesus had never abro- 
gated the Law, but on the contrary had spoken words 
that seemed to involve its perpetual observance: ‘‘Do 
not imagine that I have come to destroy the Law or 
the Prophets. I tell you truly till heaven and earth 
pass away not a letter or a comma will pass from the 
Law until it is all in force.’ They could say that 
Jesus himself was a Jew, was circumcised, and kept 
the Law of Moses. They could point to the fact that 
the apostles at Jerusalem were all Jews and were now 
observing all the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic 
ritual. 


202 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


2. THE JERUSALEM CONFERENCE 


When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch from 
their evangelizing expedition in the province of Galatia, 
“they gathered the church together and reported how 
God had been with them, what he had done, and how 
he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.” News 
of this report would be carried to the church at Jerusalem 
where the strict pharisaic party would be especially 
interested and suspicious of the part of it referring to 
the reception of large numbers of Gentiles without their 
first becoming Jews. It is very probable that Jews from 
Pisidian Antioch had been to the Passovers in Jerusalem 
during the past two years and had reported the clash 


that had occurred there between Paul and the synagogue. — 
It was probably then in no friendly spirit that ‘‘certain — 


individuals came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and 


taught the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised after © 


999 


the custom of Moses you cannot be saved. At any 


rate, Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem “to see 


the apostles and presbyters about this question.” 
The meeting at Jerusalem was not a ‘‘council” in 
the formal, ecclesiastical sense, as it has often been called. 


It was merely a conference between the older and younger — | 


churches. The Antioch church was not summoned — 


t 


before the Jerusalem church but took the initiative 
itself. In fact, the initiative was taken by Paul individ- — 


ually. He says: “It was in consequence of a revelation 
that I went up at all.” He evidently understood that 
it was in accordance with the will of God that he should 
have a conference with the older apostles at Jerusalem 


and secure their approval and good-will for his gentile 


, 


ey Se a ae 





THE NEW CONFLICT 203 


missions. This would prove an effective weapon against 
the propaganda of his legalistic opponents. 

In his own account in his letter to the “churches of 
Galatia,”’ Paul gives the details of what was to him the 
most important meeting, a private conference with the 
‘‘authorities.””’ Here we have first-hand information, 
written not more than two or three years after the confer- 
ence took place. In company with Barnabas and a promi- 
nent Greek convert named Titus, he went up to Jerusalem 
and explained privately to the leaders of the church the 
message he had been preaching to the Gentiles. 

The question at issue was whether the Old Testament 
law was binding on all Christians. In particular, must 
gentile Christians be circumcised and keep the Law of 
Moses; in other words, must they enter Christianity 
through the door of Judaism? Some representatives 
of the Judaizing element of the church were present at 
this conference. Paul refers to them as ‘‘traitorous, 
false brothers,’ and says they “stole their way in to 
spy out the freedom (from the Law) which we enjoy in 
Christ Jesus that they might enslave us again.” ‘Titus 
became the special point of attack. The Judaizers 
urged that he should become a Jew by submitting to 
circumcision. At first the leaders were inclined to 
yield and tried to persuade Paul on the ground that it 
would be in the interests of harmony and would satisfy 
the Judaizers and dono harm. Paul, however, saw that 
the whole principle of the Christian’s freedom from the 
Jewish law was involved; that it was not merely a local 
but a universal issue and that ‘‘the truth of the gospel” 
was at stake. So “‘he refused to yield for a single instant 
to their claims.” 


204 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Paul’s argument was based on the fact of God’s 
approval of his gospel of freedom from the Law as shown 
by the lives of the gentile converts of whom Titus was 
a present example. They had “received the spirit not 
by doing what the Law commands but by having faith 
in the gospel message.’”’ “When,” says Paul, “the 
so-called ‘pillars’ of the church, James and Cephas 
and John, recognized the favor of God that had been 
bestowed on me (that is to say God’s approval of my 
work among the Gentiles) they gave Barnabas and me 
the right hand of fellowship.””. Further dispute was to be 
avoided by a division of the field. ‘Our sphere,” 
Paul says, ‘““was to be the Gentiles, theirs the Jews.” 


Thus Paul completely won the recognition of the “pillar” 


apostles for his work among the Gentiles and they laid 
no restrictions upon him, ‘“‘made no additions” to his 


gospel. All they asked of him was that he should — 


“remember the poor,” and Paul says: ‘I was quite 
eager to do that myself.” 

The Acts account of the conference refers to the 
chief argument of Paul in saying that at the meeting 
of the apostles and presbyters they “‘listened to Barnabas 
and Paul recounting the signs and wonders God had 
performed by them among the Gentiles.” It refers 
also to a public meeting afterward of “the apostles 
and presbyters together with the whole church” at 


which the decision of the leaders seems to have been. 


approved. 
3. THE ANTIOCH CRISIS 


The Jerusalem conference did not settle all the ques- 
tions likely to arise from the conversion of the Gentiles 
to Christianity. It dealt only with the main question 


ea 


| 
, 





THE NEW CONFLICT 205 


of whether the gentile converts must become Jews. 
Another problem scarcely less important to the early 
Christians soon arose—that of the social relations of 
Jewish and gentile disciples. Their traditions forbade 
the Jews from associating with other people. They 
believed that to eat with Gentiles involving the eating 
of “unclean food’? made them ceremonially unclean. 
The Jewish Christians outside of Palestine of course 
found this restriction very inconvenient, and this was 
especially true when large numbers of Gentiles became 
disciples. As soon as it became recognized that the 
restrictions of the Mosaic Law were not binding on the 
gentile Christians, the question naturally arose as to 
whether they were binding on their Jewish brethren. 
If they were not essential to messianic salvation in the 
one case, why should they be essential in the other? 

When Peter came to pay a visit to the church in 
Antioch some time after the Jerusalem conference, he 
found that the Jewish and gentile disciples had solved 
the question in a manner satisfactory to themselves, 
and were visiting one another and eating freely together. 
It was a very natural thing for the impetuous, kind- 
hearted apostle who had seen his Master eat with “‘ pub- 
licans and sinners” to fall in with the Antioch custom. 
This was Paul’s territory and he probably felt that the 
regulation of the social relations of Jewish and gentile 
converts here should be left to Paul. With Peter it was 
now a mere matter of expediency. 

The Jewish legalists, while they had been compelled 
to submit to the majority ruling of the Jerusalem church 
in recognizing the release of the Gentiles from the 
exactions of the Mosaic Law, by no means considered 


206 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


that this meant the release of the Jews also. When 
they heard that Peter was mingling freely with the 
gentile Christians and eating with them, they sent a 
delegation to remonstrate with him and “when they 
arrived he drew back and held aloof because he was 
afraid of the circumcision party.” Peter was in a 
dilemma when the Judaizers came. If he continued 
eating with Gentiles he would separate himself from his 
brethren at Jerusalem; if he did not he would offend 
the gentile Christians in Antioch. It was natural for 
him, since he regarded it as a question of expediency to 
keep in with the Jerusalem people so as not to lose his 
influence in his own field, and his example was followed 
by all the other Jews including even Barnabas. 

Paul saw that it was no time to temporize. There 
was danger of losing all that had been gained. If Peter’s 
action should go unchallenged it would ‘compel the 
Gentiles to become Jews” in order to have fellowship 
with the great “pillar” apostles, and in consequence 
would base salvation on “works of law” instead of upon 
faith in Jesus Christ. He publicly rebuked Peter before 
the whole church, telling him that he was acting a 
part in which he did not believe since after having 
acted as if the Law were not binding even on Jews he 
was now acting as if it must be observed even by Gentiles. 
He probably thought that Peter was violating the agree- 
ment reached at Jerusalem by entering his field and by 
example preaching circumcision to his gentile converts. 
The rebuke was evidently effective. It would be in 
accordance with Peter’s character to acknowledge his 
error and return to his own field. Paul again saved the 
day for gentile Christianity. 





THE NEW CONFLICT 207 


4. THE GALATIAN DEFECTION 


“T am astonished that you are so readily deserting 
him who called you by his grace and going over to a 
_ different gospel which is not really another gospel, for 
_ there is no other, but it means that there are some persons 

who are unsettling you and trying to distort the gospel 
of Christ.” Thus Paul refers to the Jewish legalists 
_ who had “cut in on his rear” in the Galatian churches. 
_ While they had been defeated at Jerusalem and again 
at Antioch, they had by no means been convinced or 
even silenced. They had conceived a deadly hatred 
for Paul, and, as is always the case with people of the 
static and legalistic type of religion, they thought 
that whatever was contrary to their views was pernicious 
and utterly subversive of their ancestral faith, and that 
they would be doing God service in destroying it. They 
determined by all means to stop the progress of Paul’s 
“gospel,” and they decided that the most effective way 
was to go into his gentile mission field claiming to repre- 
sent the original gospel from Jerusalem. During his 
_ long absence in Europe on the second missionary journey, 
they found their way to the churches of Galatia— 
Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. 

Pisidian Antioch was good ground for such an attack 
because of the rupture there between Paul and the syna- 
-gogue, and the consequent strong Jewish opposition 
to Paul. The Judaizers began their attack by denying 
the apostolic authority of Paul and representing him as 
a man who knew nothing about Christianity except what 
he had gotten from the real apostles at Jerusalem, and 
that he had perverted this to suit his own interests. 


208 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


They asserted that he was trying to “please men” 
or gain popularity and incidently large “collections” 
by preaching a gospel free from the Mosaic Law. They 
accused him of insincerity and inconsistency, saying 
that at times he preached and practiced circumcision 
as in the case of Titus, and at other times condemned it 
when it did not suit his interests. In consequence, 
they claimed that Paul was an enemy of the Galatians 
seeking to deceive them for selfish glory and aggran- 
dizement. 

This legalistic campaign among Paul’s gentile converts 
seems to have made a great impression on them. The 
Galatians were “readily changing” from Paul’s gospel. 
They were observing Jewish festivals. Some of them 
had probably accepted circumcision or were upon the 
point of so doing. The reasons for the success of the 
legalistic teaching are not difficult to surmise. (r) 
Religion based on legal requirements, formal rites, 
ceremonies and sacrifices was similar to the old pagan 
worship of the Galatians and more easily understood 
than Paul’s spiritual conception of Christianity, which 
is still too lofty for many people. (2) The position of 
the legalists seemed to accord with the teaching of 
Jesus and the practice of the apostles at Jerusalem. 
(3) The loyalty of the legalists to the letter of the Scrip- 
tures was a strong point in their favor. They had a 
“Thus saith the Lord” for all their contentions. Paul 
also claimed to stand upon the Scriptures, but his 
position was not so plain. Literalism is always easy 
to the unthinking mind. 

To the fact that Paul could not go at once in person 
to Galatia when he heard this disturbing news, we are 


THE NEW CONFLICT 209 


indebted for one of his strongest letters, which has well 
been called his “thunderbolt,” and his “charter of 
religious freedom,”’ the letter to the Galatians. In this 
letter he maintained his apostolic authority and _ his 
independence of the Jerusalem apostles, reminded the 
Galatian disciples of how he had “pictured Jesus Christ 
the Crucified before their very eyes,” and that their 
genuine Christian experience and assurance of God’s 
favor had come to them ‘“‘not by doing what the Law 
commands but by having faith in the gospel message,” 
answered the arguments of the Judaizers, and earnestly 
called the Galatians back to the pure gospel of freedom 
from the Jewish law. He claimed that the Judaizers 
had perverted the gospel with the motive of avoiding 
persecution, and that if anyone accepted circumcision he 
would be under obligation to keep the whole Law and 
would be completely “severed from Christ,” or, in other 
words, would not be a Christian at all but only a Jew. 

Paul’s “thunderbolt” evidently had the desired 
effect. The Galatians repudiated the false teaching 
and returned to their allegiance. Some time after 
writing the letter he visited them again on his way to 


Ephesus, on his third missionary journey, when, as Luke 


tells us, he “went through the Galatian region and 
Phrygia, strengthening the disciples,” and, as he him- 
self tells us in the first letter to the Corinthians, he ‘‘made 
arrangements for the churches of Galatia in regard to 
the collection for the saints’ at Jerusalem. Gaius 
of Derbe was one of the delegates appointed by the 
Galatian churches to carry their gift to Jerusalem several 
years afterward. When Paul wrote to the Romans 
about 56 A.D. he referred to his work in the East as 


210 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


having been finished, which he could not have done if 
the churches of Galatia were still in the state of defection. 


5. THE CORINTHIAN REVOLT 


‘““Apostles,’ do they call themselves? They are 
counterfeit apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading 
as ‘apostles of Christ.’ No wonder they do, for Satan 
himself masquerades as an angel of light. So it is no 
surprise if his ministers also masquerade as ministers 
of righteousness. Their doom will answer to their 
deeds.” So does Paul characterize the Jewish legalists 
who tried to undermine his work in Europe. During 
his three years’ stay in Ephesus some Judaizers took 
the opportunity of following up his work in Corinth, 
As we have noticed, this was a strategic center, the 
meeting place of trade between East and West. If they 
could have succeeded in seducing this church from 
Paul they would have largely undone his work in Europe 
and sowed the seed of revolt in the whole Empire. 

They did not at first attempt here to get the Gentiles 
to submit to circumcision, knowing that they could have 
no success in such a highly cultured community. The 
Greeks would regard the rite with contempt. The 
method of approach was to discredit Paul in order to 
destroy his work, of which they were intensely jealous 
as being a dangerous rival of Judaism. They probably 
hoped, too, that some of Paul’s converts, when they 
should give up his gospel would accept their point of 
view. 

These men brought with them letters of introduction 
probably from some of the leaders in Jerusalem, and 
called themselves “apostles of Christ” on the ground 


THE NEW CONFLICT 211 


that they had “‘seen the Lord” during his ministry and in 
consequence could claim to have received a commission 
directly from him. They claimed that Paul was not an 
apostle because he had not had this privilege, or at the 
most he was only a second-hand apostle, having received 
his gospel from the real apostles at Jerusalem. They said 
Paul practically admitted his lack of authority by not 
accepting pay for his services, and by the fact that when 
he was with the church in person he was very meek and 
only when at a safe distance claimed authority in his 
letters. 

These ‘‘counterfeit apostles’ succeeded in creating 
painful discord in the Corinthian church and formed a 
strong party, calling themselves adherents of Christ 
in opposition to those who remained faithful to Paul. 
They evidently joined hands with some who were enemies 
to Paul because he had written a letter rebuking them 
for immorality. At any rate, the situation became so 
grave that it ended in an open break with Paul on the part 
of the church and a revolt against his leadership. He 
sent Timothy from Ephesus to remonstrate with them, 
but they evidently ‘‘despised his youth” and refused to 
listen to him. One man, probably the one most severely 
rebuked in the letter, openly insulted Paul. It was a 
serious revolt and threatened to destroy all the work 
Paul had accomplished. 

When this news was carried to Paul, probably by 
Timothy, he wrote to the church the exceedingly severe 
letter referred to above (chapter x), condemning the 
“counterfeit apostles” and calling the church back to its 
first love. This letter, which is preserved in part at least 
as the last four chapters of our II Corinthians, was so 


212 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


severe that for some time after it was dispatched he 
“regretted” having written it. He sent it from Ephesus 
by Titus, an older and more experienced helper than 
Timothy, who was to exhort the church in person and 
try to win it back to the true gospel. Titus was at 
length successful. The church received his message, 
repudiated the-~ false leaders, and returned to its 
allegiance with enthusiasm. Paul was greatly encour- 
aged and wrote them the letter “overflowing with joy 
and thanksgiving” which has been preserved in our 
II Corinthians, chapters 1-9. 

Thus the Jewish legalists were again defeated, and 
Paul seems to have gained such an ascendancy over them 
that after this time their efforts were only sporadic and 
comparatively harmless. When he wrote the letter 
to the Romans just before leaving for his last journey 
to Jerusalem he no doubt had it in mind to fortify the 
Christians in the world’s capital against a possible 
attack from the Judaizers by setting forth at length 
his own pure gospel of “freedom in Christ Jesus.” At 
this time, too, as has been noticed, he referred to his 
work in the East as finished, a clear intimation that 
the Judaizing propaganda had been defeated. It thus 
seems evident that his spiritual message, backed by his 
vigorous personality and powerful logic, and especially 
by his devoted life, gained the ascendancy in every part 
of the field. Afterward when in prison in Rome, some 
of the Judaizers were active against him, but the victory 
had already been won in favor of the gospel of freedom. 
If this had not been the case Christianity would have 
remained a Jewish sect with little or no influence upon 
the world. 


© ON ANN PW DHND H 


THE NEW CONFLICT 213 


SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS 


. Robinson, Life of Paul, pp. 93-110, 167, 168. 

. Dobschiitz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church, pp. 160-67. 
. Weizsicker, Apostolic Age, I, 257-70, 349-59. 

. Kent, Work and Teachings of the Apostles, pp. 91-99, 154-55. 
. Ramsay, Si. Paul the Traveller, pp. 152-74, 178-93. 

. McGiffert, Apostolic Age, pp. 192-225, 310-21. 

. Bacon, Story of St. Paul, pp. 107-46, 172-76, 283-89. 

. Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, chap. vii. 
. Farrar, Life and Work of St. Paul, chaps. xxii, xxiii, xxxiii. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE VICTORY 
HOW CHRISTIANITY BECAME A WORLD-RELIGION 


1. The Destruction of Jerusalem 
Mark 13:1-31; Matt. 24:1-35; Luke 2155-33-48) Og: 
Wars Books v, vi; Euseb. Hist. Eccl. iii. By 6 

2. Records of the “‘Good News” 
Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:21, 22; 2:42; 8:1; Papias in Euseb. 
Hist. Eccl. iii. 39. 15-17; Rom., chaps. 9-11; Mattirag, 
22, 255, 15,17, 23; 3:3; 4:14; 21:4, 28-32, 33-46; 20:1- 
14; 23:29-39; Acts 1:8; 16:35-40; 1735-0; sloul2—17. 
19-31, 33, 37-41; 23:20; 206:24-27, 31, 32 

3. Prejudice and Persecution 
Acts1736,)7;0iPhil.}r273-14*), 11 “Pim, 4:14-18; Heb. 
11; 30-—12: 11; 1'Pet. 217-17; 4:9, 12-10; /Rev.\13; 16; 
14:8-11; 17:1—18:24; Clem. R., Cor. i. s, 6; Tac. Ann. 
xv. 44; Sueton. Nero 16; Cass. Dio Hist. Rom. lxvii. Ue 
Euseb, Hist. Eccl. iii. 18; Plin. Jun. Epp. x. 96, 97; Ignat. 
Rom. 4, 5; Minucius Felix Octavius viii. 3-10; Aristides 
A polka aa seit 

4. The Later Message 
James entire, especially 1:12, 25, 27; 2: 8-26 Aca canes 
Rev., chaps. 2, 3; 14:12; 19:8; 20:12,,13;\ Heb.'5<3y103 
10:35, 360; 12:28; I Tim. 4:8; 6:18-21: Jude 3, 20; 
IT Pet. 1:10, 113 3:11-17; Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 16:16 

5. Opposition and Organization 
Col. 2:8-23; I, I, and III John entire; John 1:1-36; 
4:0; 5:10, 30; 7:1; 11:33, 35, 38, 41; 12:27, 49; 14:3, 
16-18, 23, 26, 28; 15:26; 19:11, 28; I Tim. 6:3-5; Jude 
entire; II Peter 2:1—3:16; Rey. 2305 ra gers salons 
Smyrn. 1-7; Trall. 9-11; Iren. Adv. Haer. i. 2374908 
T Cor. 12:28; Acts 20:17, 28; Phil. 1:13; I Tim. 3: 1-13; 
Titus 1:5-9; 3:1, 2; Clem. R., Cor. i. 42, 44; Didache 
7-15; Ignat. Trall. 2, 3; Smyrn. 8; Murat. Frag. 

6. Triumph 
I Cor. 236-16; 6:15-20; 10:16; Rom. O: 2-T4s non 
2:14, 15; John 1:1-5, 9, 14; 12:35, 36; Tertull. Ado. 
Jud. 7; Apol. Adv. Gent. 37; Iren. Adv. Haer. t. 10; 
Bardesanes, De Fato 

214 


=". oe 


THE VICTORY 215 


I. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM 


“Sore anguish will come upon the land and wrath 
upon this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword, 
they will be carried prisoners to all nations and Jerusalem 
will be trodden under the heel of the Gentiles.” These 
words of the Third Gospel written probably within about 
a decade of the event paint a pathetic picture of the 
overthrow of a proud people. 

The great Jewish revolt against Rome began in 66 
A.D. and ended with the complete subjugation of the 
Pauonwin. 73. |elusalem) ‘was! captured Vin’ yoults 
terrible siege and devastation seemed to the Christians 
the scourge of God, the punishment of the Jews as a 
nation for the rejection of their God-sent Messiah in the 
person of Jesus. They deserted the city just before the 
siege closed in. When they saw ‘“‘the desolating Abomina- 
tion spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing where 
he ought not,” when they saw “Jerusalem surrounded 
by armies,” they “fled to the mountains,” to the city 
of Pella in Perea. The other Jews never forgave them 
for this desertion in the critical hour. It made the breach 
complete and irrevocable. The ‘Nazarenes,” as the 
Jews called them, were from this time excluded from the 
synagogues, and a curse was pronounced against them. 

Long before this time the gentile Christians under 
Paul’s leadership m carrying their message to the Gentiles 
had thrown off the yoke of the ‘“‘mother-church,”’ but its 
influence was still felt to a considerable extent, and the 
Jewish Christians still felt themselves to be a part of 
Judaism. The great catastrophe led most of them to 
break entirely with their ancestral faith. The few that 
remained loyal to the old Judaizing program became even 


216 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


more exclusive, They formed a heretical sect known as 
the Ebionites or “poor men,” separated entirely from 
the regular churches. They regarded themselves as the 
elect “remnant” of Israel and continued the strictest 
possible observance of the Mosaic Law. They. denied 
the divinity of Jesus and taught that he was a mere man 
chosen by God: to be Messiah because of his strict 
observance of the Law. They were especially hostile to 
Paul, and rejected all the New Testament writings except 
a special form of the Gospel of Matthew. Their exclu- 
siveness was utterly foreign to the genius of Christianity 
and growth was impossible. They disappeared entirely 
soon after the fourth century. 

Thus Christianity was forever freed from the danger 
of being dominated by a powerful mother-church with 
exclusive Judaistic ideas by which its activities would 
have been much hindered, or of being divided into two 
rival factions that might well have been perpetuated into 
the centuries. Of the Jewish Christians who could not 
be converted by Paul’s logic many were convinced by 
the terrible logic of the national calamity. From the 
old Israel with its legalistic exclusiveness came forth a 
new spiritual Israel destined in a manner not foreseen 
by the old Hebrew prophets to “bless all nations of the 
earth.” The Messiah was henceforth not for Jews but 
for men. 


2. RECORDS OF THE “GOOD NEWS”? 


Inasmuch as many writers have undertaken to draw up a 
narrative of the established facts of our religion just as these have 
been reported to us by the original eyewitnesses who were in the 
service of the divine message, and inasmuch as I have carefully 
investigated them all myself from the very beginning I have 


THE VICTORY 217 


decided to write them out in order for you, most noble Theophilus, 
that you may know fully the truth of what you have been taught 
by word of mouth. 


These words from the introduction to the Third Gospel 
give us a general insight into the origin of all the records 
of the rise of Christianity. They were written to supply 
a definite demand. 

It must not be supposed that the Jerusalem church 
had been only a hindrance to the Christian message. 
On the contrary, it had done great service in conserving 
the message for future ages. The story of Jesus’ life 
and teaching was not for many years put into writing. 
There would be no demand for written accounts while 
the original disciples lived and taught, and could easily 
be interviewed by those who were interested. In conse- 
quence, those disciples who were ‘“‘scattered abroad 
[from Jerusalem] after the death of Stephen and went 
everywhere preaching the good news” probably carried 
with them to other lands a very incomplete story. 

If the whole Jerusalem church had been scattered 
abroad at this early date the probability of the trans- 
mission of complete and accurate accounts would have 
been greatly diminished. The fact that the original 
Twelve remained at Jerusalem for many years after the 
death of Jesus gave opportunity for the story of the 
“‘sood news” to be heard so often from their lips by the 
second generation that it became more and more complete 
and in a sense stereotyped. This was what has been 
called the oral gospel. It was now ready at hand for 
transmission to permanent written forms. 

Since the Twelve taught as eye-witnesses, this oral 
gospel consisted no doubt of Jesus’ most striking sayings 


218 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


which they remembered and the most interesting 
incidents of his life beginning, as is intimated by the 
author of Acts, with his baptism by John and ending with 
accounts of his Resurrection. This oral gospel was 
naturally much prized and even after there were written 
gospel records it was preferred by many people. Papias 
(born about 7o~A.D.) tells of questioning those who had 
heard any of the Twelve whenever he had an oppor- 
tunity, ‘“‘for,” he says, “I did not think what was gotten 
from books would profit me as much as what came from 
the living and abiding voice.” 

The sayings were most prized at first as being authori- 
tative instruction in Christian living but were not as 
easily remembered as the incidents, and in consequence 
men who heard them repeated by one of the Twelve 
were more likely to write some of them down either for 
their own edification or that of friends. In this way 
various isolated groups of sayings would become current. 
After a while attempts were naturally made to collect 
these groups of sayings and put them together in an 
orderly manner for the use of inquirers, 

As has been stated above (p. xix) Papias says that 
“Matthew wrote the logia [sayings of Jesus] in Hebrew 
ie, Aramaic] and everyone interpreted them as he 
was able.” Of the Twelve, Matthew was probably 
best fitted to do this work because of his experience 
as a tax-collector, in which capacity he of course used 
writing in making necessary lists and notations of pay- 
ments. This collection of sayings was used as the chief 
source for Jesus’ words by the authors of our First and 
Third gospels. It is usually referred to as “the Logia.” 
The original work disappeared early, probably because 


THE VICTORY 2109 


it soon came to be used only in translation and was 
almost if not entirely incorporated into the Greek gospel 
written later, which because of that fact came to be 
known as “‘the Gospel according to Matthew.” 

After the complete breaking-up of the Jerusalem 
church in consequence of the siege and destruction of the 
city, the need for definite and complete written accounts 
of the gospel story would become imperative, as so 
many Christians would have no access to eye-witnesses. 
When Peter, the recognized leader of the original Twelve, 
passed away there would arise a demand for the story 
as he had told it, and his well-known disciple John Mark 
would naturally be the man to write it. In this way, as 
is confirmed by Papias, came to be written the earliest 
gospel narrative that has come to us (our Mark) and 
that which was used either directly or indirectly by all 
subsequent gospel writers, especially by the authors of 
our First and Third gospels. 

This account of Jesus’ life was evidently written for 
the simple purpose of recording the story so that it might 
be used by Christian missionaries in making converts. 
In all probability Mark made some use of the oral gospel 
to supplement his recollections of Peter’s discourses 
and arranged his material as far as he could in chrono- 
logical order. Naturally most emphasis was placed 
where Peter probably placed it, on Jesus’ wonderful deeds 
as most interesting material for missionary work. Mark’s 
gospel, therefore, is not an argument; it is a simple nar- 
ration of the gospel story, largely as the author received it 
from the chief eye-witness and as he himself believed it. 
In consequence, it was exceedingly well adapted to the 
needs of the early preachers, and, being regarded as 


220 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


authoritative because of its coming from Peter, it became 
the basis of other accounts. 

One of the most pressing problems of the early 
Christians was the attitude of the Jews toward Christi- 
anity. Jesus was the long-promised Messiah of the 
Jews and yet the Jewish people had rejected him before 
his death and were not accepting him even now after 
his messiahship had been divinely demonstrated by his 
Resurrection. Gentiles were flocking into the Kingdom 
in ever increasing numbers, but “the sons of the King- 
dom” were not only holding aloof but were extremely 
antagonistic. Were the prophets right? Was Jesus 
really the Messiah of the Jews? Paul in his letter to the 
Romans had attempted to answer this question by assert- 
ing that the Jewish attitude was only temporary and that 
‘all Israel” would accept Christianity “when the great 
mass of the Gentiles came in.” Since Paul’s time, 
however, the Jews had become even more hostile and 
Paul’s solution seemed more and more improbable. 

The destruction of Jerusalem offered the key to this 
problem, and the idea came to a Jewish Christian leader 
to make use of it in an elaborate and conclusive argument 
for Jesus’ messiahship. This argument he clothed in the 
form of a gospel narrative. He used the Logia of the 
apostle Matthew and the Gospel of Mark together with 
an account of the infancy period and wrote as complete 
a story as possible to show that Jesus was the God-sent 
Messiah of Old Testament prophecy, that he had been 
wilfully rejected by the Jews and in consequence God had 
punished them by destroying their city and had taken 
the Kingdom from them and given it to the Gentiles. 
Henceforth it was to be a universal Kingdom in which 


THE VICTORY 221 


“all nations”’ were to have equal privileges. This gospel 
(our Matthew) became so popular that it was for a long 
time known as “the gospel”? and took precedence over 
Mark which in consequence was almost lost to posterity. 

About the same time that Matthew was written but 
probably in a different part of the Christian world a 
Greek disciple, generally believed to be ‘‘Luke, the 
beloved physician,” the well-known companion of Paul, 
noted the incomplete character of the many accounts of 
Jesus’ life and sayings that were current among the 
gentile Christians. Having had large opportunity for 
gathering data and a great interest in the work, he decided 
to write a complete and well-arranged account for the 
purpose of giving to the Gentiles and especially to those 
in authority such a record as would commend Christi- 
anity to them as the true universal religion. With this 
in view he made a “careful investigation of all things 
from the very beginning” and wrote his gospel probably 
without any knowledge of our Matthew. He traced 
Jesus’ ancestry back not to Abraham but to Adam, and 
emphasized the universal and humanitarian character 
of his deeds and messages. Because of his more historical 
purpose he arranged the sayings of Jesus according to 
time and place, as was probably done to some extent in 
the Logia, rather than topically as is done in Matthew. 

Some time after this the same author with practically 
the same general purpose wrote another volume (Acts) 
to show how the ‘‘good news,” “‘beginning at Jerusalem,” 
spread through “‘all Judea and Samaria and to the utter- 
most parts of the earth” and to commend Christianity 
to the Roman governmental authorities. He aimed 
also to checkmate the calumnies of the Jews by relating 


222 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


the harmless and beneficent history of the movement and 
calling attention to the fact that while its great advocate, 
Paul, had been ill-treated and vilified by the Jews he 
had invariably been pronounced innocent and protected 
by the Roman officials. 

Thus were preserved for posterity remarkably 
complete records of the origin of Christianity and its 
progress to the time it had been carried over most of 
the civilized world. 


3- PREJUDICE AND PERSECUTION 


“These upsetters of the whole world,” the character- 
ization of Paul and Silas and their companions by the 
Thessalonian mob in 50 A.D., gives the keynote to the 
attitude of the people toward the early Christians. 
One of the greatest obstacles they had to overcome was 
the prejudice that arose from ignorance and misconcep- 
tion of their ideals and practices. Like the Jews, who 
were always unpopular, but in a still greater degree, 
they were a “peculiar people,” and the world has always 
hated non-conformity and ridiculed the unconventional. 
Every department of life was permeated with the worship 
of the heathen gods and in consequence the Christians 
could not participate in the established customs of 
government and society. They could not hold office 
because all official functions involved performance 
of heathen rites. Theaters, games, and all kinds of 
amusement and recreation were affected by impurity 
and polytheism and were avoided by the Christians as 
snares of the devil. Thus they came to be regarded as 
exclusive and unsocial and were hated because of their 
implied criticism of their neighbors and their “holier 


PHEAVICTORN pegs 


than thou” attitude. Their anticipation of the immediate 
coming of the Messiah made them careless of social 
conditions. 

The popular charges against the Christians may be 
summarized as follows: 

1. Atheism or sacrilege-—-This has always been 
popularly regarded as the most heinous of crimes. The 
Christians did not worship any of the gods that everybody 
else worshiped. As they offered no sacrifices and had 
no altars or images, outsiders could not understand how 
they could have any gods of their own. The cry of the 
mobs against them was “‘Away with the atheists.” 
In times of calamity they were blamed for bringing down 
the wrath of the gods on account of their impiety, and 
the natural way to appease the gods was to punish those 
who had given offense. ‘They think the Christians 
to blame for every public calamity, for every hurt that 
touches the people,” says Tertullian. “If the sky stands 
still [does not fall down in rain], if the earth moves, if 
there is famine or plague, immediately the shout is 
raised ‘To the lions with the Christians!’”’ 

2. Sedition or treason.—Their secret meetings under 
cover of darkness, their references to a great coming 
cataclysm, the destruction of the present order and the 
ushering in of the Kingdom of God and their recognition 
-of a law superior to that of the Empire, gave color to 
this charge, and their refusal to participate in the national 
emperor-worship was regarded as proof. 

3. Disturbance of economic conditions.—As in the case 
of Paul’s work at Ephesus, Christianity interfered with 
the financial interests of multitudes who made their living 
from the sale of shrines, images, sacrificial animals, and 


224 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


food for these animals as well as for the priests and their 
multitudinous attendants. 

4. Disturbances of the peace.—This was the charge 
brought against Paul. “We have found this man a 
perfect pest,” his accusers declared before the Roman 
governor at Caesarea. The Christians were indefatigable 
proselyters, and the conversions broke up families and 
disrupted social conditions. 

5. Licenttousness.—This seems to us to be a strange 
charge but it was most insistent. The Christians seemed 
to be very fond of one another; men and women met 
together at night, and everything dark and secret was 
supposed to be base. 

6. Infanticide and cannibalism.—Some eavesdropper 
would hear words about “eating flesh and drinking 
blood.” Infants were sometimes taken to the services. 
Gossip whispered that they were killed and devoured 
by the initiates. 

7. Magic and wiichcraft—The Christians claimed to 
cast out demons. They were accused of being in league 
with the powers of darkness. The sign of the cross 
used on all occasions aroused suspicion and fear. 

As has been seen, the Christians were at first regarded 
as Jews. The Jewish religion was recognized as legal 
by the Roman government and accorded special privi- 
leges. The Jews were excused from emperor-worship 
and military service. These two privileges were very 
helpful in saving them from collision with the Roman 
authorities. As soon, however, as the Christian move- 
ment began to be recognized as distinct from Judaism, 
it was regarded with suspicion as a “new superstition” 
and soon became the object of persecution. The point 


THE VICTORY 225 


at which the Christians came constantly into collision 
with the Roman authorities and on which all the accusa- 
tions against them finally came to be based was their 
persistent refusal to participate in the national emperor 
worship. This was regarded as a refusal to take the 
oath of allegiance to the Empire. 

The trial of Paul at the world’s capital probably did 
much to bring the Christians to the notice of the imperial 
authorities as forming a body distinct from the Jews, 
and the Jews were not slow in seeking to shift their 
racial unpopularity upon their hated rivals. The first 
noteworthy persecution began in the city of Rome in 
64 A.D. and, while it does not seem to have extended to 
the provinces, it advertised the Christians throughout 
the Empire as obnoxious to the government and empha- 
sized the fact that their “‘superstition’? was distinct 
from Judaism and consequently unprotected. Tacitus 
describes the punishment of the Christians as so wantonly 
cruel as to elicit sympathy for them from the population 
although they were regarded as “‘criminals and deserving 
of extreme penalties,” and as ‘‘enemies of the human 
race,’ yet this local persecution may fairly be taken 
as typical of those that followed intermittently and 
sporadically in the Empire for about two and a half 
centuries. 

The persecution under Domitian (81-96 A.D.) is 
noteworthy in that it is vividly reflected in several New 
Testament writings which date from his reign. Domitian 
was especially sensitive on the subject of the divine 
honors he wanted paid to himself. He seems to have 
taken them seriously and was jealous of the title, 
Dominus et Deus. The Christians, because of their 


226 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


well-known attitude on this subject, became the special 
objects of his displeasure. 

The disciples to whom the epistle to the Hebrews 
(ca. 85) was addressed were suffering persecution and in 
danger of surrendering their faith. The purpose of the 
writer was to keep them faithful by telling them of 
Christ’s pre-eminent glory and trying to convince them 
that the greatest price they could pay was small in 
comparison with the eternal reward on the one hand or 
the fearful consequences of apostasy on the other. He 
pictures to them a great ‘“‘cloud of witnesses,” or former 
martyrs, who are looking down upon their similar 
contest of endurance. 

The writer of J Peter (ca. 90) exhorts those whom he 
addresses to endure, by referring to the similar sufferings 
of Christ. He says: 

Do not be surprised at the ordeal that has come to test you as 
though some foreign experience befell you. You are sharing what 
Christ suffered, so rejoice and exult when his glory is revealed. If 
you are denounced for the sake of Christ, you are blessed. ... . 
None of you must suffer as a murderer or a thief or a bad character 


or a revolutionary; but if a man suffers for being a Christian he 
must not be ashamed, he must rather glorify God for that. 


We have here a good indication of the attitude of the 
Christians toward martyrdom. ‘This was the spirit that 
finally conquered. 

The author of Revelation (ca. 95), who wrote to 
encourage Christians whom he expected soon to be 
subjected to bitter persecution, in his cryptic language 
says (referring to the imperial priesthood): ‘It has 
everyone put to death who will not worship the statue of 
the Beast” [the emperor], and he tried to keep them from 


THE VICTORY 227 


apostasy by the dread of even greater torment beyond 
this life: ‘‘Whoever worships the Beast and his statue 

. shall be tortured with fire and brimstone before 
the holy angels and before the Lamb, the smoke of their 
torture rises for ever and ever, and they get no rest 
from it day and night.” 

From the persecution under Trajan (98-117 A.D.) 
there has been preserved correspondence between the 
famous Roman writer, Pliny the Younger, and the 
emperor (112 A.D.) which gives us very significant 
information about the early persecutions, especially as 
to the character of the Christians (see the quotation on 
p. xxv) and the attitude of the government. Pliny, 
who was governor of the province of Bithynia in Asia 
Minor, writes a letter to Trajan asking his advice as to 
how to deal with the Christians. He says: 

Meanwhile I have taken this course with those who were 
accused before me as Christians. I have asked them whether they 
were Christians. Those who confessed I asked a second and a 
third time, threatening punishment. Those who persisted I 
ordered away to execution..... An unsigned paper was pre- 
sented containing the names of many. But these denied that they 
were or had been Christians, and I thought it right to let them go, 
since at my dictation they prayed to the gods and made supplica- 
tion with incense and wine to your statue, which I had ordered to 
be brought into the court for the purpose, together with the images 
of the gods, and in addition to this they cursed Christ, none of 
which things, it is said, those who are really Christians can be 
made to do. 


ce 


In this letter Pliny refers to Christianity as “a 
perverse and excessive superstition,” and says that 
it affected “‘many of every age and every rank and 
even of both sexes,” and by reason of it the temples 


228 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


had been deserted till quite recently. Trajan in reply 
commends his general course and says that “‘if they are 
accused and convicted they must be punished, but he 
who denies he is a Christian and makes the fact evident 
by act, that is by worshiping our gods, shall obtain 
pardon.” 

This correspondence does not indicate the inaugura- 
tion of a new policy but a recognition of the general 
attitude of the government. Christians were regarded as 
criminals and outcasts beyond the pale of governmental 
protection. The confession of the name came to be 
sufficient cause for torture and capital punishment, 
because it carried with it the implication of treason. 
In consequence, their treatment depended largely on the 
temper of the local governor and the attitude of the 
people of the community. This condition continued 
for about 150 years from Trajan’s time. 

What was the attitude of the Christians under these 
persecutions? We do not find an instance of resistance 
orretaliation. While there were of course many who re- 
canted, yet in ever increasing numbers they remained firm 
and “‘kept the faith” in defiance of the most terrible 
torture and death. Their only answer to all calumnies, 
threats, and insults was: “‘T am a Christian and no evil is 
done by us.” They almost recklessly gloried in the fact 
that they were deemed worthy to suffer as their Master 
had done. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who suffered 
martyrdom about 115 A.D., on his way to Rome to die 
wrote to the church in that city a letter in which he 
begged that no effort be made to save him. “Rather,” he 
says, “‘entice the wild beasts. ... . Let there come 
upon me fire and cross and struggles with wild beasts, 


THE VICTORY W220 


cutting and tearing asunder, racking of bones, mangling 
of limbs, crushing of my whole body, cruel tortures of the 
devil, if I may but attain to Jesus Christ.” 

This unflinching endurance under cruel torture gave 
rise to the idea that the martyrs were miraculously 
sustained and after a time became insensible to pain. 
This idea, together with their absolute confidence that 
martyrdom gave an immediate entrance to eternal 
glory, often caused onlookers to confess and give them- 
selves up voluntarily to a similar fate. While, however, 
they endured without resistance or retaliation, they 
naturally conceived an intense hatred for the government 
that treated them so unjustly. At first they were 
exhorted by their leaders to honor and obey the govern- 
ment authorities as may be seen in Paul’s letters and 
even in I Peter, where hope is held out that the magis- 
trates may cease to persecute if the Christians exhibit 
blameless lives. In Revelation, however, the spirit 
is entirely changed and the Christians are hoping to 
rejoice over the destruction of the hated tyrant—the 
“oreat city,” “the woman clothed in purple and scarlet, 
seated on seven hills,” for ‘‘in her was found the blood of 
prophets and saints and of all who were slain upon the 
earth.” | 

The persecutions not only did not permanently 
retard the progress of Christianity but in reality they 
accelerated it. The indomitable courage exhibited by 
the martyrs attracted the noblest spirits of the age in 
increasing numbers to the church. People thought 
there must be something in a religion that produced 
such heroic fruitage. While written ‘‘apologies’’ were 
made in the second century, the real answer to all 


230 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


calumnies, cruelty, and unjustice was the consistent 
character and pure lives of the rank and file of the 
Christians themselves. It was this purity of life and 
evident sincerity of motive that finally won for them the 
respect and good-will of the great body of men who were 
honestly looking toward the light. 


“4. THE LATER MESSAGE 


An important result of the efforts of the early Chris- 
tians to defend themselves against the calumnies of their 
enemies was a distinct though unconscious modification 
of the message of Jesus and Paul, making salvation 
depend upon obedience to law. ‘The old conflict between 
Judaism and Christianity died out even before the 
destruction of Jerusalem. ‘The universality of the mes- 
sage which was inherent in Jesus’ teaching and for which 
Paul contended so vigorously was no longer subject to 
contention. Paul had conquered. Jewish legalism was 
forever given up by the Christians, but a new Christian 
legalism arose. 

This modification of the free gospel of Jesus and Paul 
is best seen in the so-called Epistle of James, a Christian 
homily written probably toward the close of the first — 
century. In it Christianity is represented as a law. 
‘“‘He who speaks evil of his brother,” says James, “and 
judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the 
law.” Paul’s free spiritual gospel of faith becomes a 
religion that consists in something to be done. James 
calls it the “‘law of liberty” but it consists not in faith 
or the attitude of filial love which makes a man a son 
of God but in the strict observance of God’s law. 

In this conception of Christianity most of the later 
writings agree. Christians are represented as being 


THE VICTORY 231 


exempt from Jewish law but not from all external law 
as Paul taught. They are subject to the law of Christi- 
anity, regarded as the final revelation of God, which takes 
the place of the old Law of Moses. Religion does not 
consist in the recognition of God’s fatherhood and in the 
filial attitude toward him but in ‘‘visiting the fatherless 
and widows and keeping one’s self unspotted from the 
world.” Jesus’ and Paul’s conception of the fatherhood 
of God is lacking. God again becomes largely the 
sovereign or king of the Old Testament writings, and 
salvation is a result of keeping his law. 

In Revelation, God is represented as a reigning 
sovereign, and faith or the filial attitude has become ‘‘the 
faith,” or the sum of the teachings of Christianity, and 
the saints are ‘‘ they who keep God’s commands and “‘ the 
faith of Jesus.’ In Hebrews, salvation is represented 
as the result of obedience to ‘‘the Son,” who ‘“‘learned 
by all he suffered how to obey, and by being thus per- 
fected became the source of eternal salvation for all who 
obey him.” “Patient endurance,’ the author says, 
“is what you need so that as a result of doing the will 
of God you may get what you have been promised. In 
I Timothy (ca. 110) the young preacher is exhorted to 
tell his people “to be rich in good deeds in order to 
secure the life indeed.”? After enumerating the duties of 
Christians the author of II Peter (ca. 130) says: ‘‘If you 
do these things you will never stumble, but thus you will 
be given a triumphant admission into the everlasting 
Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.” In 
I Timothy and Jude (ca. 110) Christianity is conceived 
of as a well-defined body of doctrine “‘once for all com- 
mitted to the saints.” 


232 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


The most striking characteristic of this later message, 
however, and that which gave it power with the people 
was not its conception of Christianity as law but as a 
promise conditioned on obedience to law. It still 
remained the ‘‘good news” of eternal life. The law was 
merely a means to the attainment of a blessed. salvation 
to be secured by the faithful in the life to come. ‘Blessed 
is the man,” says James, “who endures under trial, for 
when he has stood the test he will get the crown of life.’’ 
IT Peter, as we have seen, promises to those who practice 
the Christian virtues “‘a triumphant admission into the 
everlasting kingdom,” and this same conception of 
Christianity, promising eternal life and happiness to 
those who keep the Christian law or the “‘commands of 
Christ,” is found also in Hebrews, Revelation, I Timothy, 
the Appendix to Mark, and the concluding section of 
Matthew, as well as in I Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, 
the Didache, and other early patristic writings. 

The conception of Christianity thus seen in the later 
writings of the New Testament was evidently well 
received. As in the case of the legalistic message of the 
Judaizers, it seemed much easier to understand than 
Paul’s free spiritual gospel of salvation by faith. The age 
was not prepared for Paul’s idealism. The conception of 
salvation as a reward for doing the commands of Christ 
when this meant clean, upright living appealed to the 
earnest spirits of that age, which was characterized by 
a reaction against the low morality of the later republic 
and an impulse toward better living such as is voiced 
in the writings of later Stoicism, particularly those of 
Epictetus (ca. 100). The message of these later writings 
of the New Testament was on a lower spiritual plane 


THE VICTORY 233 


than that of Jesus and of Paul, but the difference was not 
recognized by its preachers and it made a strong appeal 
to the men of that period as the same ‘‘good news” of 
eternal salvation. 


5- OPPOSITION AND ORGANIZATION 


‘Although I am versed in all mysteries and all 
knowledge [gzosis] but have not love I am nothing,” 
said Paul. These two terms, ‘‘mysteries” and “‘knowl- 
edge,” suggest the two great rivals of early Christianity 
—the mystery religions and Gnosticism. 

We have noticed how the mystery cults coming from 
the East sought to satisfy the individual heart-cry of the 
Hellenistic world for deliverance from sorrow and death 
and for hope of eternal happiness by means of union 
with a savior deity. The early Christian preachers had 
to meet these religions on their own ground and to show 
that their own message was infinitely superior. 

The most dangerous enemy of early Christianity was 
Gnosticism. ‘The name, derived from the Greek word 
gnosis, meaning knowledge, suggests the form of its 
appeal. 

The theory of the acquisition of knowledge by sense 
perception only did not satisfy a large number of seekers 
after truth in the Hellenistic world. Some of the later 
philosophers began to give the emotions a place in forming 
a system of epistemology. As soon as this was done, 
physical and intellectual means of apprehension as being 
apparently confined in their operation to this world 
were subordinated to the emotional soul, which seemed to 
be only temporarily confined in the material body and 
to be capable of soaring to other worlds if released from 


234 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


its bodily prison. Thus there arose in Hellenistic 
philosophy a growing tendency toward mysticism. Bya 
process of syncretism from various oriental mystery 
religions a selection was made of the elements that seemed 
best to supply this emotional need. The resulting cult 
came to be called “Gnosticism” from the claim on the 
part of its votaries to superior knowledge of man’s 
origin and destiny and the means of his deliverance 
from evil. 

This knowledge was not received through intellectual 
means but was a miraculous revelation to the initiates 
through the rites and ceremonies of the cult. The 
kinship of Gnosticism to the mystery religions is seen in 
the fact that its fundamental purpose was to secure 
for the individual soul redemption from evil through 
mystical union with a mythical savior deity, and its 
kinship to speculative philosophy from the elaborate 
speculative system reared on this mystical founda- 
tion. All things material were essentially bad and 
could have no affinity with the spiritual. The su- 
preme deity, therefore, did not create the earth and 
things material. They were the work of an evil demon 
referred to as the “‘Demiurge.”” This was the solution 
of the age-long problem of evil. The soul of man was 
originally a spark of divine essence but by some mishap 
became imprisoned in matter where it dwelt in misery 
and from which it could not escape by any exercise of its 
own powers. 

Between the good and evil deities and their numerous 
attendant spirits was waged a continual warfare for the 
determination of the soul’s destiny. ‘This warfare took 
place on the earth and in the upper regions through 


THE VICTORY 235 


which the soul must go on its way back to the abode of 
the good deity from whom it originally emanated. 
The means of escape from the prison-house of matter 
was through a mysterious knowledge (gnosis) which 
could be secured only by the initiated. When the soul 
obtained this knowledge it could free itself from matter, 
overcome all evil spirits, and rise to the highest heavens 
by the aid of an emanation from the good god——a savior 
deity mystically represented as “Light,” “Truth,” 
“Wisdom,” ‘‘ Primal Man’’—-sent down for this purpose. 

As a syncretizing cult Gnosticism naturally found in 
the young and vigorous redemptive religion of Christi- 
anity the elements needed to give it concreteness and 
definite historical setting, and so well did it succeed in 
appropriating them that for a long time it was supposed 
to have originated within Christianity itself by a process 
of affiliation with Greek philosophy and was referred to 
as a Christian heresy. It made the pre-existent Christ 
the soul’s deliverer and accepted some of the New 
Testament writings as revelation, but rejected the Jewish 
element in Christianity and made the God of the Old 
Testament the Demiurge or evil demon who created 
matter. It denied the union of Christ with sinful flesh 
and taught that he occupied the body of the man Jesus 
only as a temporary abode entering at the baptism and 
leaving before the Crucifixion, or that he never had a 
real body but lived on earth and suffered only in appear- 
ance. This latter view was called ‘“‘Docetism” (seeming). 

Gnosticism was more dangerous than other enemies 
in that it was not content to remain outside of Christi- 
anity as a distinct cult but sought to appropriate it in 
such a way as to destroy its identity. The Christian 


236 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


leaders saw clearly that if the docetic doctrine of their 
Christ should prevail Christianity would be torn from 
its historical anchorage and sent adrift on a sea of 
fanatical speculation and would lose its authoritative 
ethical appeal to the consciences of men. 

Several of the New Testament writers wrote to 
combat the influence of this subtle rival. Of these by 
far the greatest was the author of the Fourth Gospel, 
the little treatise known as I John and probably also the 
brief letters known as II and HI John, all written 
according to well-authenticated tradition at Ephesus 
about the end of the first century or the beginning of 
the second. The writing known as I John has more of 
the character of a tract than a letter. It was probably 
intended as a circular letter to be sent with the mission- 
aries who went out over Asia Minor under the author’s 
direction and read by them to the churches. Evidently 
these churches were afflicted by the teaching of the 
Gnostics who claimed greater knowledge than the rank 
and file of Christians, making use as we see from the 
circular letter of such expressions as ‘‘ We have fellowship 
with God,” “‘We are not guilty,” ““We have not sinned,”’ 
“We know God,” “We remain in him,” ‘‘We are in the 
light,” etc., probably claiming, as many of the Gnostics 
did, to be superior to the ordinary laws of morality, 
being independent of the flesh, despising it and so using it 
as they pleased. 

The letter does not merely condemn the false doctrine 
but it sets forth clearly what the author considers the 
true gospel. ‘Jesus came in the flesh,” in reality not in 
mere seeming (Docetism). While he was the divine 
Logos and ‘“‘existed from the very beginning” the writer 


THE VICTORY 237 


testifies that he ‘“‘was disclosed” to him and that he 
“heard, saw and touched” him with his own hands. 
This divine “Word” taught the great principle of love, 
which is the essence of the Christian religion. The 
Docetic claim to sinlessness while living an evil life is 
absolutely false. No man can have fellowship with 
God who does not ‘“‘move within the light.”” “‘He who 
says ‘I know him’ but does not obey his commands is a 
liar.”’ “‘He who says he is in the light and hates his 
brother is in the darkness still.” True religion thus 
consists in loving God and in consequence loving one’s 
fellow-man. 

IT and III John have practically the same objective. — 
They are very brief letters, one written to individual 
churches to exhort the members to “love one another” 
and to warn them against the Docetic impostor who does 
not acknowledge “that Jesus Christ came in the flesh,” 
and the other to a prominent member of the same church 
called Gaius to commend him and to warn him against 
a certain Diotrephes who opposes “‘the Elder” (as the 
author calls himself) and will not admit his missionaries 
to the church. ‘These letters are interesting for the light 
they throw on the growing necessity for stricter organiza-_ 
tion such as is advocated so strongly a little later in the 
pastoral epistles and Ignatius. 

Toward the close of the first century when Christi- 
anity, having been now for a generation completely | 
severed from Judaism, had become largely a religion of 
the Greek world, the fact that it was clothed in Jewish 
dress and used a Jewish vocabulary was felt to be a 
handicap. Jesus was no longer merely a Jewish messiah 
but a world-deliverer. ‘The question arose of the value, 


238 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


and indeed necessity, of translating the Christian 
message into Greek terms and so giving it a universal 
language and dress, namely, that of the Greek world. 

This urgent need was supplied, in the form of a story 
of the life and words of Jesus, by the writing known as 
the ‘Gospel according to John” in which the author, the 
great Christian teacher of Asia Minor referred to above, 
used the three earlier gospels, supplementing and in- 
terpreting them. He stated his purpose as being that 
his readers may ‘“‘continue to believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the son of God, and believing may have life 
through his name.” Evidently there was a tendency 
for Christians to follow the docetic teachers and to give 
up their belief in the reality of Jesus’ life on earth. 

The author of this gospel followed Paul in empha- 
sizing faith in Jesus as the incarnation of the pre-existent 
Christ but emphasized, as Paul did not, the idea that 
he possessed and exhibited omniscience and divine 
power and majesty during his earthly career. He 
bridged the gulf between Christianity and Greek philos- 
ophy by making Jesus the divine Logos (word) who 
“existed in the very beginning” and came forth from 
God to men as their deliverer, the emanation from God, 
the “Life” and “Light” of the Stoic philosophy, and 
insisted also on his humanity and reality as a corporeal 
being during his life on earth in opposition to the Doce- 
tists who denied that the man Jesus was identical with 
the heavenly Christ. 

In conformity with this purpose Jesus’ deeds are 
reported not as deeds of mercy, as is the case in the 
Synoptic Gospels, but rather as “‘signs”’ of his divinity, 
and his words are not given, as in the Sermon on the 


THE VICTORY 230 


Mount, from the standpoint of teaching men how to 
live but from that of demonstrating Jesus’ own divine 
personality and majesty. At the same time the author 
represents Jesus as really human, subject to and conscious 
of human weaknesses and limitations. For example, 
he speaks of him as “‘exhausted by the journey he sat 
down by the well” and as saying that “‘he can do nothing 
of his own accord, nothing but what he sees the Father 
doing.” Thus he demonstrated that the Jesus of 
Nazareth of the Synoptic Gospels was identical with the 
divine Christ of Paul’s letters and answered the objections 
of the gnostic teachers. 

This interpretation of the life of Jesus in terms of 
Greek thought was very successful. It appealed to men 
of philosophical education and at once secured their 
attention. It gave concrete historic appeal to their 
fundamental conception of an abstract emanation from 
God as an intermediary to bring deliverance to men. 

The author also meets two minor difficulties of the 
early Christians: the question of the delay of Jesus’ 
coming again, which was now beginning to cause doubts 
in the minds of many Christians, and the claim of the 
John the Baptist sect that their master was the Messiah. 
He explains the second coming as having already been 
fulfilled in the coming of the Spirit and represents John 
as distinctly denying that he himself was the Messiah. 

Another Christian teacher by the name of Jude, 
about the beginning of the second century, wrote a 
scathing polemic in the customary form of a letter against 
the docetic Christians, especially those who claimed to 
be so spiritual that they could ‘indulge in immorality 
with impunity. About a generation after this time 


240 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


another writer incorporated almost the whole of Jude’s 
writing into a letter which is known to us as II Peter. 
His reference to Paul’s letters as ‘“‘Scripture” and his 
use of the other New Testament books mark his work as 
the last of the New Testament writings. As about one 
hundred years had passed since Jesus’ life on earth some 
Christians were ‘beginning to doubt and were asking: 
“Where is his promised coming?” The author of II Peter 
wrote to strengthen the faith of his readers in the second 
coming and to denounce gnostic Christians of the same 
type as those of Jude’s days for their skepticism and 
immorality. | 

The urgency of presenting a solid front against these 
divisive forces within and without the church was no 
doubt the leading motive of the first great advance in 
organization, as is indicated by Ignatius (bishop of 
Antioch, 110-17) who says: ‘‘Avoid divisions as the 
beginning of evils. See that you all follow your bishop, 
as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbyters as 
you would the apostles and pay respect to the deacons as 
a commandment of God.” 

It is true that there had long been a tendency in 
this direction. As has been noticed before (chap. vii), 
while there were no regularly appointed leaders or officers 
in the first communities the need of them soon began to 
be felt and even in the first community at Jerusalem 
seven men were chosen to “serve tables,” or look after 
the temporal affairs of the congregation. The earliest 
gentile churches established by Paul, however, do not 
seem to have had regular officers although the older men 
(“‘presbyters”’) no doubt acted informally as advisers. 
If there had been authoritative officials he would in all 


THE VICTORY 241 


probability have mentioned them, especially in his 
letters to the Galatians and Corinthians. The leaders 
he mentions—‘‘apostles, prophets, and teachers”’—were 
evidently such by virtue of special gifts of the Spirit and 
not by official election or appointment. 

Even in Paul’s farewell address to the “‘presbyters”’ 
or elders of Ephesus he speaks of their being made 
“overseers” (bishops) by the Holy Spirit. These were 
probably the older and more faithful members who came 
to be recognized as “overseers” by reason of their 
qualifications and faithful service. This development 
was of course a step in the direction of official recognition, 
and in one of Paul’s latest letters (Philippians) he 
addresses in his salutation two classes, ‘‘overseers and 
servants,’ as distinct from the Christians in general. 
The Greek words he uses to designate these classes are 
those from which the English terms ‘‘bishops” and 
“deacons” are derived. These two classes soon came 
to be officially chosen and recognized as leaders in the 
churches. 

The need for such official leaders was increasingly felt 
as the ‘‘eyewitnesses,” those who had ‘‘seen the Lord,” 
one after another passed away, and as those who claimed 
direct inspiration of the Spirit became fewer or were sus- 
pected of fraud, as is indicated in The Teaching of the Twelve 
A postles, written in the early part of the second century. 
Probably the first need was that to which reference has 
already been made—the collection and distribution of 
alms, which was an essential part of worship. ‘The proper 
conduct of church worship, especially of the Lord’s 
Supper, as well as the administration of teaching and 
discipline, called for competent leadership as soon as 


242 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


the spirit-guided ‘‘apostles, prophets, and teachers” 
of Paul’s time had passed away. 

At first there were two classes of officials, overseers 
or “bishops,” chosen from the ‘‘presbyters” referred 
to above, and servants or “deacons.” About the 
beginning of the second century, however, as is seen in 
the letters of Ighatius (115 a.D.), one of these bishops 
in each congregation came to be chosen as the leader 
and was given the title of bishop exclusively, while the 
others remained simply presbyters. Thus arose the 
office of monarchical bishop, the chief value of which, 
as Ignatius indicates, was a defense against division. 

This growing tendency toward organization is seen in 
the pastoral epistles, I and II Timothy and Titus, written 
probably about the beginning of the second century. 
A devout follower of Paul saw the need for authoritative 
instruction in choosing church officers, checking religious 
speculation, and giving specific instruction in Christian 
living, in view of the delay of Jesus’ coming. He probably 
made use of some brief personal letters of Paul and 
amplified them with such specific teaching as he believed 
Paul would have given under the then-existing conditions. 

Another important result of these struggles, especially 
that against Gnosticism, was the development of the 
New Testament canon. During the first century the 
only sacred writings or “Scriptures” recognized by the 
Christians were those of the Old Testament. These 
constituted the Bible of the early church and were so 
quoted by preachers and teachers and read in the 
assemblies. The words of Jesus were quoted as of equal 
authority with the Old Testament but not from any 
definite, recognized source. The letters of the apostles 


THE VICTORY — 243 


were read in the churches for edification and instruction 
but not designated as ‘Scripture.’ The Gnostics, 
however, repudiating the Old Testament and claiming 
that the apostles of Christ had all authority and inspira- 
tion, forged a number of writings in support of their 
doctrines for which they claimed apostolic authorship. 
The Christians had to meet the challenge. They began 
to make lists of the writings regarded as genuine, proceed- 
ing largely on the basis of apostolic authorship or 
immediate connection with an apostle, as in the case of 
the Gospels of Mark and Luke. When these lists of 
sacred writings came to be generally recognized later, 
they corresponded very nearly to our present New Testa- 
ment and formed a strong bulwark of defense for 
historical Christianity. 


6. TRIUMPH 


“We give utterance to ‘wisdom’ among those who 
are able to apprehend it but it is not the wisdom of this 
world nor of its rulers, who will soon come to nothing. 
No, we give utterance to the wisdom of God contained 
in a ‘mystery’ which has been kept hidden and which 
God decreed before the world began so that it should 
result in glory for us.” “The Logos existed in the very 
beginning with God. Through him all existence came 
into being. In him was Life and this Life was the 
Light for men.” These words of Paul and the author 
of the Fourth Gospel suggest Christianity’s method of 
approach in the struggle which resulted in the conquest 
of its rivals in the Hellenistic world. 

We have seen how Jesus brought to men a unique 
message of the fatherhood of God with all the blessings 


244 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


which that relationship implies; how this message was 
rejected by the pharisaic legalistic leaders of the Jews 
but was burned into the hearts of a number of chosen 
disciples; how his disciples after his Crucifixion at the 
hands of his enemies, though at first they fled in conster- 
nation, soon became convinced that he had triumphed 
over death and was now their divinely appointed Lord 
and the Messiah of prophesy who would return in glory 
to establish on earth the everlasting Kingdom of God; 
how when his return was delayed they came to believe 
that it was their part to prepare for it by bringing all their 
countrymen to repentance and belief in his messiahship; 
how when this message was spurned, they “turned to the 
Gentiles” under their new cosmopolitan leader, the last 
but the greatest of the apostles; how the new message, 
after a painful struggle with legalism, was completely 
severed from Judaism and set free to work out its destiny 
in the Hellenistic world; and finally, we have seen how 
it had to contend for its existence against the prejudices 
of the people of the day, the Roman government, rivals 
from without and false friends from within. What were 
the determining factors in its final triumph over these 
opposing forces in the Hellenistic world ? 

The hope for success in such a struggle would 
naturally be in the ability of the Christian message to 
meet more effectively than was done by its rivals the 
needs of men who were seeking for salvation from the 
ills of this life and especially for assurance of a blessed 
immortality. In adjusting itself to meet these demands 
Christianity found in Paul an able, versatile, and 
sympathetic leader who marked out a well-defined path 
for his successors and, without any such intention on his 


THE VICTORY 245 


part, left in his letters to his various churches marvelously 
complete instructions for them to follow when he had 
to leave his task unfinished. 

Other leaders arose who while they did not, as we 
have seen, keep the Christian message on Paul’s high 
plane yet followed his idea of becoming “all things to 
all men” in the good sense in which he used that expres- 
sion. They believed that Christianity was the full 
fruitage of God’s plan for saving men from sin and death 
and that in consequence it contained all the elements 
necessary to satisfy all legitimate aspirations of mind 
and heart. Were their hearers devotees of mystery 
religions? ‘They were told of the real ‘‘mystery which 
had been kept secret hitherto and which God had decreed 
before the world began,” and which could now be 
revealed to the initiated. Did they believe that salvation 
must come from union with a savior deity? They were 
told how to become united with a savior who, instead 
of being an ancient fantastical creation of the imagina- 
tion, was a well-authenticated historical person who had 
lived on earth in recent times, suffered and died and now 
lived again in glory at God’s right hand, a loving sympa- 
thizer and all-powerful deliverer. Did they long for 
thrilling emotional experience as evidence of union with 
deity? They were pointed to the well-known ecstatic 
experience of the Christian converts who were “all 
filled with the Holy Spirit” and “spoke as the Spirit 
gave them utterance.” Did they believe that union 
with the deity was attained through sacred rites or 
sacraments? ‘They were offered Christian baptism in 
which the initiate ‘‘died to sin,” was ‘‘buried with Christ 
and raised with him to live and move in a new sphere 


246 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


of life,” and assured that this experience was constantly 
renewed in the mystical partaking of his very nature in 
“the communion of the body and blood of Christ.” 
Were they seekers after “‘wisdom”? They were told of 
‘““God’s wisdom which none of the rulers of this world 
knew.” Did they fear evil spirits? Christ had con- 
quered them all; they fled at the mention of his name. 
Were they attracted by ethical teaching and purity of 
lifee ‘They were given the pure precepts of Jesus and 
told that as “temples of the Holy Spirit” the initiates 
must live in conformity with this teaching. In a true 
sense Christianity became all things to all men. 

Nevertheless, there were some to whom this adapta- 
tion of the message did not make such a strong appeal. 
These were the ‘‘intellectuals” of that day who were 
not completely satisfied by the mysteries but were 
seeking salvation through philosophy. To meet these 
needs Christianity produced, as we have seen above, 
another great teacher in the author of the Fourth 
Gospel. He presented Jesus as the incarnation of the 
pre-existent “Logos” or divine reason of the Stoic 
philosophy. The terms “Life,” “Light,” “Truth,” and 
“Knowledge,” the subjects of so much philosophical 
speculation in the search after religious values, were given 
new content and concrete appeal by identification with 
the “Logos” that ‘came in the flesh and lived for a 
time among us so that we saw his glory—the glory as of 
the only son of God.” 

The work of these two great leaders while adapting 
the message of Christianity to meet the needs of the time 
preserved the true spirit of its founder and it finally 
prevailed over all obstacles because, as has been seen 


THE VICTORY 247 


(chaps. iv and ix), it gave men “power to become sons 
of God” and so satisfied the deepest and most abiding 
yearnings of the human heart. It thus offered fellowship 
with God, the universal Father, and in consequence 
emancipation from the sense of guilt, or, in other words, 
forgiveness of sins, emancipation from the power of 
evil habit or the achievement of moral character, and 
_ assurance of life after death with release from the sense 
of emptiness that comes when nothing is seen beyond the 
grave. All these blessings were verified and exhibited 
in the lives of the early Christians, and Christianity 
became ‘‘known by its fruits,” thus establishing its 
claim for recognition as the most complete revelation of 
the will of the universal Father of men. 

Thus the triumph of Christianity as a world-religion 
was practically assured in the early part of the second cen- 
tury, although it was not until two centuries later that it 
was formally recognized as a legal religion and its ascend- 
ancy over all other religions finally assured in its adop- 
tion by theemperor. Soon afterward it was decreed to be 
the only legal religion of the Empire, and thus, in a man- 
ner not anticipated by its founder, the Kingdom of God 
was established on earth. In another sense, however, and 
surely that which Jesus had in mind, was established and 
still lives, ever increasing in extent and vitality, a world- 
wide community of men and women inspired by his spirit 
and ideals and bound together by the belief that they 
are all children of one all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving 
Father, whose will is their supreme guide of life—the 
community of the “‘Sons of Light,” the “‘ Body of Christ,” 
the ‘‘ Kingdom of God.” 


248 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 


. Ayer, Source Book for Ancient Church History, pp. 5-82. 
. Case, Evolution of Early Christianity, pp. 166-94, 223-38, 


331-69. 


. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 


Pp. 440-672. 


. Kent, Work and Teachings of the Apostles, pp. 238-99. 
. Walker, History of the Christian Church, pp. 33-50. 
. Case, in Smith, Guide to the Study of the Christian Religion, 


pp. 289-314. 


. Lake, The Stewardship of Faith, pp. 58-167. 

. Goodspeed, The Story of the New Testament, pp. 1-139. 

. Pfleiderer, Primitive Christianity, ITI, 101-41. 

. Dobschiitz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church, pp. 251-308. 
. Hodges, The Early Church, pp. 30-93. 

. Moore, The New Testament in the Christian Church, pp. 3-33. 


APPENDIX I 


OUTLINE OF A BOOK TO BE WRITTEN 
BY THE STUDENT 


As has been indicated in the Preface, it is very desirable 
that the student should put the results of his study into definite 
form. To aid him in so doing the following outline is given. 
It is intended to be suggestive rather than final. To this end the 
content of each chapter is not formally analyzed but merely 

suggested. 


INTRODUCTION. THE RECORDS OF THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Apocalyptic writings; the New Testament; non-Christian 
writings; the church Fathers. 


CHAPTER I. THE DAY OF UNIVERSAL EMPIRE 


Political world-conditions; facilities for travel; language; 
Rome’s attitude toward her dependencies. 


CHAPTER II. RELIGION AND MORALITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
Polytheism and nationalistic religions; emperor-worship; 
Greek philosophy; mystery religions; merals. 


CHAPTER III. PALESTINE 
Geographical position; topography; climate and products; 
people and language. 


CHAPTER IV. POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN PALESTINE 
Hellenism; the Maccabean revolt; the period of independence; 
transition to Roman rule; Herod the Great; political divisions 
in the time of Jesus. 
CHAPTER V. JUDAISM 
Distinguishing characteristics of the Jewish religion; sects 
and parties; messianism; the Dispersion. 


249 


250 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY - 


CHAPTER VI. JOHN THE BAPTIST 
Personality; message; use of baptism; relation to Jesus; 
imprisonment and death; contribution to Christianity. 
CHAPTER VII. ADVENT OF JESUS 
Family and home life; preparation; call; temptation. 


CHAPTER VIII. THE KINGDOM OF GOD 
Origin of the term; its significance in the Old Testament and 
other Jewish literature; popular view at the time of Jesus; Jesus’ 
conception; his solution of the great national problem of his 
countrymen. 
CHAPTER IX. JESUS’ WORK IN GALILEE 
Calling the disciples; a typical day’s work; healing diseases 
and casting out demons; popularity. 


CHAPTER X. JESUS’ TEACHING 


God and his relation to man; man’s relation to God; man’s 
relation to his fellow-man. 


CHAPTER XI. OPPOSITION FROM JEWISH LEGALISM 
Charges brought against Jesus; real cause of the opposition; 
pharisaic legalism; etfect of the opposition; the crisis. 
CHAPTER XII. THE PERIOD OF RETIREMENT 


Farewell to the Galilean cities; reason for seeking privacy; 
in Phoenicia and the Decapolis region; Caesarea Philippi and 
messiahship. 

CHAPTER XIII. JESUS’ LAST JOURNEY 

His “face set to go to Jerusalem”; teaching on the way; 

work in Perea; public declaration of messiahship. 


CHAPTER XIV. JESUS IN JERUSALEM 
Conflict with the Jewish authorities; warnings against rejec- 
tion; arrest; trial; Crucifixion. 
CHAPTER XV. THE RESURRECTION 


Flight of the disciples; the rebirth of faith; evidence of 
Resurrection; why they returned to Jerusalem. 


APPENDIXES 251 


CHAPTER XVI. THE FIRST COMMUNITY OF DISCIPLES 


Meeting of the 120; conviction of the Spirit’s presence; 
Pentecost and the “tongues”; message of the first disciples; 
how the community was governed; beginning of organization. 


CHAPTER XVII. CONFLICT WITH JUDAISM 


Attitude of the disciples to Judaism; cause of Jewish opposi- 
tion; Stephen’s activity; his position; his martyrdom. 


CHAPTER XVIII. FROM JEW TO CHRISTIAN 
Cause of separation; position of the Hellenistic as compared 


with that of the Palestinian disciples; the first steps; the Antioch 
church; the first “ Christians.” 


CHAPTER XIX. ORIGIN AND PREPARATION OF PAUL 


Time and place of birth; family and early life; education; 
career as a persecutor. 


CHAPTER XX. PAUL’S CALL AND COMMISSION 


Influences toward conversion; the vision and commission; 
the retirement. 
CHAPTER XXI. PAUL’S ‘‘GOSPEL”’ 


Righteousness and faith; justification; redemption; recon- 
ciliation; social relations. 


CHAPTER XXII. PAUL’S PRELIMINARY WORK AND 
FIRST MISSIONARY CAMPAIGN 


» 


Damascus and Jerusalem; Syria and Cilicia; Antioch; 
Cyprus and Galatia. 
CHAPTER XXIII. OPPOSITION FROM CHRISTIAN LEGALISM 


The Judaizers; the Jerusalem conference; Peter at Antioch; 
the trouble in the Galatian churches. 


CHAPTER XXIV. PAUL’S SECOND AND THIRD 
CAMPAIGNS AND IMPRISONMENT 


Macedonia and Achaia; Ephesus and Corinth; Jerusalem and 
Caesarea; Rome. 


252 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


CHAPTER XXV. CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN GOVERNMENT 


The destruction of Jerusalem and its result for Christianity; 
attitude of Rome and its cause; the persecutions; the conduct 
of the Christians under persecution; the result. 


CHAPTER XXVI. PREJUDICE AGAINST CHRISTIANITY 


Popular charges against the Christians; attacks from pagan 
writers; the apologists; the real answer of Christianity. 


CHAPTER XXVII. CHRISTIANITY’S RIVALS 


The mystery religions; Gnosticism, its origin and relation to 
Christianity; Marcion. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. CHRISTIANITY’S TRIUMPH — 
Heresies; the growing tendency toward organization; the 
origin of church officers; the origin of the canon; reasons for 
Christianity’s success. 


APPENDIX II 


SPECIAL TOPICS FOR CLASSROOM 
DISCUSSION OR ASSIGNED 
PAPERS 


The library references for these topics should be selected by 
the teacher from the Bibliography given in Appendix III. The 
order of usefulness for undergraduates is indicated in the “Supple- 
mentary Readings” at the end of each chapter. 

INTRODUCTION 


1. The Synoptic Problem. 
2. The Authorship and Trustworthiness of Acts. 


CHAPTER I 
1. Emperor-Worship. 


2. Relation of the Mystery Religions to Christianity. 


CHAPTER II 
1. Scribism. 


2, The Synagogue and Its Influence on Christian Worship. 
CHAPTER III 


1. The Relation of Jesus to Judaism and to John the Baptist. 
2. The Miracles of Jesus. 


CHAPTER IV 
1. Jesus’ Solution of the National Problem of the Jews. 
2. The Messianic Consciousness of Jesus. 
CHAPTER V 
1. Jesus and the Pharisees. 
2. The Perean Ministry. 


CHAPTER VI 
1. The Trials of Jesus. 
2. Jesus’ Place in Early Christianity. 


253 


254 


THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


CHAPTER VII 


. Were There Appearances in Jerusalem ? 
. Evidences of the Resurrection. 


CHAPTER VIII 


1. Stephen’s Relation to Judaism. 
. Causes of the Break with Judaism. 


r CHAPTER IX 


. The Chronology of Paul’s Life. 
- Paul’s “Gospel” Compared with That of Jesus. 


CHAPTER X 


. The North and South Galatian Theories. 
. Was There a Second Roman Imprisonment ? 


CHAPTER XI 


. Life in the Pauline Churches. 
. Were the Members of the Christ Party of Corinth 


Judaizers ? 
CHAPTER XII 


. Logos Christianity. 
. The Relation of Gnosticism to Christianity. 


APPENDIX III 
A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The following list includes besides those already cited addi- 
tional books for the use of the teacher. These additional works 
are generally more technical or less adapted to the use of under- 
graduates than those named in the “Supplementary Reading’”’ 
at the end of each chapter. The teacher will find here material 
from which to select references when assigning the special topics 
given in Appendix II. Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, Dictionary 
of Christ and the Gospels, Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, and 
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics may also be frequently 
consulted with profit. 


THE RECORDS 


Ayer, J. C., A Source Book for Ancient Church History, 1913. 

Bacon, B. W., An Introduction to the New Testament, 1900. 

BENNETT, W. H., AND ADENEY, W. F., Biblical Introduction, 
1907. 

Burton, E. D., A Short Introduction to the Gospels, 1904. 

——., Principles of Literary Criticism and ihe Synoptic Problem, 
‘1904. 

Cuartes, R. H., Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testa- 
ment, 1913. 

GoopsPEED, E. J., The Story of the New Testament, 1916. 

Juzicuer, A., Introduction to the New Testament, 1904. 

Morratt, JAMES, Introduction to the Literature of the New Testament, 
IQII. 

——, The Apbroach to the New Testament, 1921. 

Peake, A. S., A Critical Introduction to the New Testament, 1910. 

SANDAY, W., Studies in the Synoptic Problem, 1911. 

Wuiston, W., The Works of Flavius Josephus, edited by 
MArGOLIOUTH, D. 5S. 

Yonce, C. D., The Works of Philo Judaeus (4 vols.), 1894. 


255 


256 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


CONTEMPORARY GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD AND JUDAISM 


ANcuS, S., The Environment of Early Christianity, 1915. 

BREASTED, J. H., Ancient Times, 1916. 

CAsE, S. J., The Evolution of Early Christianity, 1914. 

DEISSMANN, A., Light from the Ancient East, 1910. 

Ditt, S., Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, 1905. 

FAIRWEATHER, W., The Background of the Gospels, 1908. 

Hatcu, E., Influences of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian 
Church, 1890. 

KENNEDY, H. A. A., St. Paul and the Mystery Religions, 1913. 

MATHEWS, S., A History of New Testament Times in Palestine, 
IgIO. 

MILuIGAN, G., Selections from the Greek Papyri, 1910. 

SCHURER, E., A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ, 
1891. 


JESUS 


BarTon, G. A., Jesus of Nazareth, 1922. 

BousseEt, W., Jesus, 1906. 

Burton, A Source Book for the Study of the Teaching of Jesus, 
1923. 

BuRTON AND MATHEWS, Life of Christ, 190r. 

CasE, S. J., The Historicity of Jesus, 1912. 

FARRAR, F. W., Life of Christ (2 vols.), 1874. 

GILBERT, G. H., Jesus, 1914. 

——, Student’s Life of Jesus (3d ed.), 1922. 

Giover, T. R., The Jesus of History, 1917. 

HOoLtzMAnN, O., The Life of Jesus, 1904. 

LAKE, K., The Historical Evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, 1907. 

LESTER, C. S., The Historic Jesus, 1912. 

Rosinson, T. H., St. Mark’s Life of Jesus, 1922. 

SCHWEITZER, A., The Quest of the Historical Jesus, 1910. 

Scott, E. F., The Kingdom and the Messiah, tgtt. 

SIMKHOVITCH, V. G., Toward the Understanding of Jesus, 1921. 

STEVENS, G. B., The Teaching of Jesus, 1901. 

THomeson, J. M., Miracles in the New Testament, 1912. 


APPENDIXES 257 


WEINEL, H., AND WincrERY, A. G., Jesus in the Nineteenth Century 
and After, 1914. 

Werss, B., Life of Christ (3 vols.), 1894. 

WennT, H. H., The Teaching of Jesus, 1892. 


THE APOSTOLIC AGE 


Bacon, B. W., The Story of St. Paul, 1904. 

BartTteET, J. V., The Apostolic Age, 1890. 

Burton, E. D., Handbook of the Life of the Apostle Paul (sth ed.), 
1906. 

——., Records and Letters of the Apostolic Age, 1805. 

——., ‘‘Saul’s Experience on the Way to Damascus,” Biblical 
World, I, 9-23. 

ConE, O., Paul the Man, the Missionary, and the Teacher, 1808. 

CONYBEARE AND Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul (various 
editions). 

DeEIssMANN, St. Paul, a Study in Social and Religious History, 
1912. 

DosscuHutz, E. von, The A postolic Age, 19009. 

—., Christian Life in the Primitive Church, 1904. 

FARRAR, F. W., The Life and Work of St. Paul, 1879. 

GILBERT, G. H., A Short History of Christianity in the Apostolic 
Age, 1906. 

Hi, W. B., The Apostolic Age, 1921. 

KeEnnepy, H. A. A., St. Paul and the Mystery Religions, 1913. 

Kent, C. F., The Work and Teachings of the Apostles, 1916. 

McGrrr\ert, A. C., A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 
1899. 

PFLEIDERER, O., Primitive Christianity (4 vols.), 1906-11. 

Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen, 1896. 

Rosinson, B. W., The Life of Paul, 1918. 

Ropgs, J. H., The Apostolic Age in the Light of Modern Criticism, 
1907. 

SABATIER, A., The Apostle Paul, 1806. 

Scott, E. F., The Beginnings of the Church, 1915. 

WEIZSACKER, C., The Apostolic Age of the Christian Church, 
1897. 

WERNLE, P., The Beginnings of Christianity (2 vols.), 1904. 


258 THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


POST-APOSTOLIC TIMES 


CANFIELD, L. H., The Early Persecutions of the Christians, 1913. 

CARPENTER, J. E., Phases of Early Christianity, 1916. 

Cass, S. J., The Evolution of Early Christianity, 1913. 

CrLarKE, C. P. S., Church History from Nero to Constantine, 1920. 

Dogscuti1z, E. von, Christian Life in the Primitive Church, 1904. 

Ducuesne, L., Early History of the Christian Church from Its 
Foundation to ihe End of the Third Century, 1909-13. 

GoopsPEED, E. J., The Story of the New Testament, 1915. 

Harpy, E. G., Studies in Roman History, 1906. 

HarNaAcKk, A., The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the 
First Three Centuries (2 vols.), 1908. 

Hatcu, E., The Organization of the Early Christian Churches, 1895. 

HonceEs, The Early Church, 1915. 

Lake, K., The Stewardship of Faith, 1915. 

LeccE, F., Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity, 1915. 

LowrtE, W., The Church and Its Organization, 1904. 

MoorgE, E. C., The New Testament in the Christian Church, 1904. 

Newman, A. H., A Manual of Church History, 1899-1902. 

PFLEIDERER, O., Primitive Christianity (4 vols.), 1906-11. 

Rainy, R., The Ancient Catholic Church, 1902. 

Souter, A., The Text and Canon of the New Testament, 1913. 

WALKER, W., History of the Christian Church, 1918. 


£75-164 B.C. 
170-65, B.C, 


167 B.C. 
166-161 B.C, 
165 B.C. 


ca. 140 B.C. 
65-45 B.C. 
63 B.C. 


37-4 B.C. 
31 B.C.-T4 A.D. 


cad. 10 B.C. 


6 B.C. 

4 B.C.—6 A.D. 
4 B.C.-39 A.D. 
6-15 A.D. 
14-37 A.D. 
18-36 A.D. 


26-36 A.D. 
27 A.D. 
29 A.D. 
30-40 A.D. 
35 A.D. 


37-41 A.D. 
38-46 A.D. 


41-44 A.D. 
41-54 A.D. 


APPENDIX IV 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 


Antiochus 
Epiphanes 

The Book of 
Enoch 

Maccabaean revolt 

Judas Maccabaeus 

Reconsecration of 
the Temple 

Sibylline Oracles, ii 

Psalms of Solomon 

Judea becomes 
subject to Rome 

Herod the Great 

Augustus , 

The Assumption of 
Moses 

Birth of Jesus 

Archelaus 

Herod Antipas 

Annas, high priest 

Tiberius 

Caiaphas, high 
priest 

Pontius Pilate 

Baptism of Jesus 

The Crucifixion 

Gamaliel I 

Paul’s conversion 

Caligula 

Paul in Syria and 
Cilicia 

Herod Agrippa I 

Claudius 


259 


44 A.D. 


47-48 A.D. 


48 A.D. 
49-SI A.D. 
50-100 A.D. 
Ca. 50 A.D. 


51 A.D. 
52-56 A.D. 


54-68 A.D. 
56 A.D. 


56-58 A.D. 


59-61 A.D. 


61 A.D. 
64 A.D. 


66 A.D. 


Martyrdom of 


James, son of 
Zebedee 

Paul’s first cam- 
paign 


Jerusalem confer- 
ence 

Paul’s second cam- 
paign, I, II 
Thess. 

Herod Agrippa IT 

Matthew’s Logia 

Galatians 

Paul’s third cam- 
paign, I, IT Cor., 
Rom. 

Nero 

Paul’s arrest at 
Jerusalem 

Paul’s imprison- 
ment at Caesarea 

Paul’s _imprison- 
ment at Rome, 
Philem., Col., 
Eph., Phil., II 
Tim. (in part) 

Paul’s martyrdom 

Neronian persecu- 
tion. Martyr- 
dom of Peter 

Rebellion of the 
Jews against 
Rome 


260 


ca. 67 A.D. 
69-79 A.D. 
70 A.D. 


Ca. 70 A.D. 
ca. 75 A.D. 


ca. 80 A.D. 

93 A.D. 
81-96 A.D. 
85-90 A.D. 


THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Birth of Polycarp 
Vespasian 
Destruction of Jeru- 
salem - 
Gospel of Mark 
Gospels of Matthew 
and Luke, 
Josephus’ Wars 
Acts ; 
Josephus’ Antiquities 
Domitian 
Domitian’s persecu- 
tion, Heb., I Pet., 
Rev. 


ca. 95 A.D. I Clement, James 
98-117 A.D. Trajan 


cd. 


ca. 


ca. 


ca. 


100 A.D. I, II, III John, 
Gospel of John 

110 A.D. Pastoral epistles 
(in present form), 
Jude 

112 A.D. Pliny’s correspond- 
ence with Trajan 

115 A.D. Epistles of Ignatius 

117 A.D. Tacitus’ Annals 

130 A.D. IT Pet., Papias’ 
Expositions, 
Didache 


INDEX 


Wy 
Awad 


} i 
| ¢ Vari al 
( ba nase 





INDEX 


Abraham, 23, 29, 56, 176, 200, 221 
Actium, battle of, 4 


Acts 1Book’ of xxi, to, 227) 122, 
156, 1621.,'204, 227 I. 


Adam, 221 

Agrippa I, 139 

Alexander the Great, 3 

Alexandria, 153, 191 

Amos, 34 

Ananias and Sapphira, 124 

Antioch, 144 ff., 151, 168, 180, 183, 
BoA Ee LOO, 100", 200," 202, 120515, 
240 

Antioch of Pisidia, 181, 183, 184, 
202, 207 

Antiochus Epiphanes, 20, 26 

Antiochus the Great, 19 

Antipas, see Herod Antipas 

Antipater, 21 

Antony, 4 

Apocalypse, xxii 

Apocryphal gospels, xxiv 

Apollos, ror f. 

Apostles, attitude toward Judaism, 


"27 f.; (counterfeit, 211; early 
church leaders, 242 


Appearances of Jesus after Resur- 
rection, 112 ff. 


Appendix to Mark, 232 

Aquila, 190, 191 

Arabia, 17, 165, 166 

Aramaic language, 18, 37, 107, 218 
Archelaus, 22 

Aretus, 153 

Aristarchus, 194 

Aristides, 6 

Artemis, 194 


Assumption of Moses, 27 
Atheism, 223 

Athens, 153, 156, 187. 
Attis, mysteries of, 13 
Augustus, 2, 4 


Babylonian Captivity, 18 
Babylonian Exile, 29 


Background, necessity of recon- 
structing, 2 


Baptism, 35f., 162 


Barnabas, 124, 128, 146f., 168, 
180 f., 202, 203, 204, 206 


Belgium, 23 

Berea, 186 

Bethany, go, 92, 99 

Bethsaida, 81 

Bishops, 241, 242 

Bithynia, xxv, 227 

Blood, in redemption, 171, 172, 173 
Burial, 111 


Caesar, 55, 96 

Caesarea, 154, 196, 224 

Caesarea Philippi, 84, 102 

Canon of New Testament, 242 

Capernaum, 49, 50, 70, 71, 80, 81, 
86, 89 

Catacombs, xxiv 

Chasidim, 19 f. 

Chloe, 188, 193 

Chorazin, 81 

Chrestus, xxv 

Christianity as law, 230 ff. 


Christians, origin of the name, 
147 ff., 168; persecutions of, 
224 ff.; popular charges against, 


264 


223{f.; relation to Jews, 224; 
relation to Roman government, 
224%. 
Christophanies, 112 ff. 
Church officers, 240 f. 
Cilicia, 152, 167, 183 
Cilician synagogue, 158 
Circumcision, 29, 200, 201, 203, 
206, 208, 210 
Claudius, xxv, 188 
Clement of Rome, letter of, xxiii, 
232 
Collection for Jerusalem, 190, 195 
Colossae, 192 
Colossians, letter to, 197 
Communism, 124 
Conference at Jerusalem, 202 ff. 
Conflict with Judaism, 131 ff. 
Corinth, 158, 187, 188 ff., 190, 210 
I Corinthians, 163, 193 f., 194 
II Corinthians, 193, 195 
Corinthian correspondence, 103 ff. 
Cornelius, 142 ff., 152 
Counterfeit apostles, 211 
Cross, 105 f.; inscription on, 107 
Crucifixion, 105 ff., 121 
Cybele-Attis, cult of, 13 
Cyprus, 180 f. 


a 


Damascus, 48, 159, 160, 162, 166 
Daniel, prophecy of, 215 
David, 111 

Deacons, 242 

Dead Sea, 17 


Death of Jesus, in redemption and 
reconciliation, 170 ff. 


Decapolis, 81 

Demeter, mysteries of, 12 
Demetrius, 194 

Demiurge, 234 

Demoniacal possession, 51 f. 
Demons, 51 f. 

Derbe, 182 f., 207° 


THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Desolating Abomination, 215 
Devout persons, 29 
Diaspora, 27 

Dickens, 65 


Didache, see Teaching of the 
Twelve Apostles 


Dionysus, mysteries of, 13 

Diotrephes, 237 

Discipleship, 87 

Dispersion, 27, 28, 29, 132 

Docetism, 235, 236, 237, 239 

Dogs, 82 

Domitian, 225 

Domitian, persecution under, xxiii, 
225 f. 

Ebionites, 216 

Egypt, 24, 40 

Ekklesai, 140 

Eleusinian mysteries, 12 

Elijah, 35, 47, 78, 113 

Elymas the Sorcerer, 180 f. 

Emancipation, 173 

Emperor-worship, 9 

Enoch, 116 

Enoch, Book of, 26 

Epaphras, 192 

Ephesians, letter to, 197 

Ephesus, 184, 190, 191 ff., 194, 196 

Epictetus, 11, 232 

Epicureanism, 11 

Esdraelon, 41 

Essenes, 130 

Ethiopian officer, 141 

Eusebius of Caesarea, xxiii 


Factions in Corinth, 210 
Faith, 66. 

False brothers, 203 
Fatherhood of God, 64 ff. 
Fathers, early church, xxiii 
Flight of disciples, 110 ff. 
Forgiveness, 172 f. 


INDEX 


Formalism, 75 

Fourth Gospel, the, xxii 
French Revolution, 10 
Fullness of time, 30 


Gaius, 194, 200, 237 
Galatia, 1709 ff., 182, 
207 


Galatians, letter to, 163, 164f., 
203, 207, 209 f. 

Galilee, 17, 22, 37, 38, 48, 71, 78, 
ois003, 102, 117 

Galilee, Lake of, 41, 81, 84, 115 

Gallio, 189 

Gamaliel I, 156, 158 

Gentiles, 82, 164, 169, 204, 215, 
220, 221 

Gethsemane, 98, 102 

Gnosticism, 233 ff., 239, 242 f. 

Golden rule, 59, 60, 63, 67, 176 

Goliath, 111 

Good Samaritan, parable of, 60, 
62, 68 

Greek civilization, 3 ff. 

Greek language, 3 ff., 6f. 


184, 195, 


Hebrews, 232 

Hebrews, Gospel according to the, 
xxiii, xxiv 

Hebrews, letter to, xxii, 226 

Hellenism, 20, 21 

Hellenists, 28, 132, 133, 438, 140, 
145, 158, 167 

Hellenistic civilization, 3, 28 

Hellenistic language, 3, 4 

Herod Agrippa I, 139 

_ Herod Antipas, 22, 77, 78, 82, 86 

Herod I, the Great, 21 f. 

Herod Philip, 22 

Herodians, 74, 78, 83, 96, 97 

Hierapolis, xviii 

Hillel, school of, 156 f. 

Holy Spirit, 122 ff. 


265 


Hyrcanus IJ, see John Hyrcanus 
Hyrcanus II, 21 


Iconium, 182 f., 207 

Idumea, 21 f., 71 

Ignatius, letters of, xxiii, 228, 232, 
237, 240, 242 

Imprisonment of Paul, 196, 197 

Inscription on the Cross, 2 

Isaiah, 142 

Isis and Osiris, cult of, 13 

Israel, 118 


Jailer, Philippian, 185 

James, brother of Jesus, 38, 204 

James, letter of, 230f. 

James, son of Zebedee, 84, 87 

Jericho, 87 

Jerusalem, 20, 85, 86, 88, 80, 90, 
92, 93, 128, 140, 141, 144, 195 f., 
217; destruction of, 215 ff., 210, 
220; first community of dis- 
ciples in, 121 ff.; return of dis- 
ciples to, 116ff.; taken by 
Pompey, 21 . 

Jerusalem Conference, 202 ff. 


Jesus: accused of blasphemy, 73; 
accused of breaking Law of 
Moses, 74; accused of treason, 
74,105; appearances after Resur- 
rection, 112; attitude toward 
Rome, 45, 56 f.; attitude toward 
Sabbath, 74; baptism, 43; called 
Lord}) 123; 1273" = carpenter s 
son, 38; choosing disciples, 71; 
cleansing the temple, 92 ff.; 
cures, 571s early lite. )37 f.. 
education, 39; family, 38; feed- 
ing the multitude, 79; indict- 
ment of Pharisees, 77; language 
used, 40; last journey to Jeru- 
salem, 85 f.; master carpenter, 
a, 42 f.; message of, 132; mes- 
slanic consciousness, 48 f.; op- 
position to, 73 ff.; paradoxes, 
63; popularity, 70, 78; public 
ministry, 47 ff.; relationship to 
John, 46 ff.; retirement, 81 ff.; 


266 


significance of his death, 170 ff.; 
solution of Jewish national 
problem, 56f.; teaching, 50, 
54 ff.; temptation, 44 ff.; trial, 
103 ff.; visit to Jerusalem at 
twelve years, 41f.; ‘visit to 
Nazareth, 49f.; see also the 
Table of Contents 


Jews: attitude toward burial, 111; 
attitude toward Christianity, 
220, 222; attitude toward Paul, 
166, 182, 185; expelled from 
Rome, 188; government, 19; 
origin, 18; relation to Rome, 56; 
religion, 19 f., 23 ff. 

Joel, 119, 120 

John the Baptist, 33 ff., 43, 47, 72, 
77, 94£., III, 191, 239 

John, Gospel of, xxii, 112, 115, 238f. 

John, son of Zebedee, 84, 87, 204 

I John, 236f. 

II John, 236, 237 

IIT John, 236, 237 

Jonah, 52 

Jonathan, 20) 

Jordan, 17, 87 

Joseph of Arimathea, 108 

Josephus, xxiv, 26, 36, 37, 39 

Judaism, 22 ff. 

Judaizers, 198 ff., 215 f. 

Judas Iscariot, 08 ff. 

Judas Maccabaeus, 20 

Jude, 239 f. 

Jude, letter of, 231 

Judea, becomes independent, 20 

Judgment, 34 

Justification, 172 f. 

Justin Martyr, Apologies, xxiii 


Kidron Valley, 98, 1o1 

Kingdom of God, 26, 45, 49, 50, 
54 ff., 60, 61, 84, 86, 87, 91, 95, 
98, 99, 108, I19, 121, 129, 146, 
220, 223, 247 

Kingdom of Heaven, 54 


THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Language of Palestine, 6. 
Last Supper, 100, 110, 162 


Law of Moses, 25, 95, 132, 136, 
175, 201, 205, 208, 216 


Lazarus, 90, 99 

Lebanon Mountains, 17 

Legalism, 25, 60, 75 f., 199 ff., 230 
Literalism, 75, 208 


Logia of Matthew, xix, 37, 218 f., 
220, 221 


Logos, 11, 236 f., 238, 243, 246 
Lord’s Supper, 124, 241 
Love, God’s father-love, 64 ff., 


173 f.; foundation principle of 
Kingdom of God, 69 


Lucian, xxv 

Luke, xx, 185, 221 

Luke, Gospel of, xx, 216f., 221, 
243 

Lydia, 184 

Lystra, 182 ff., 207 


Maccabean revolution, 20, 25 

Macedonia, 184, 186 f., 195 

Machaerus, 47 

Magi, 180f., 185 

Malachi, 117 

Marcus Aurelius, 4, 11 

Mariamne, 21 

Mark, Gospel of, xviii, 37, 219 f., 
220, 243 

Mark, John, xviii, 90, 103, 112, 
IIQ, 124, 219 

Martha of Bethany, go, 99 

Martyrs, 229 

Mary of Bethany, go, 99 

Mary Magdelene, 98, 108 

Mary, mother of Jesus, 38 


Matthew, Gospel of, xix, 97, 216, 
219, 220f., 232 


Mattathias, 20 
Matthew the Apostle, 218 
Mediator, 173 f. 


INDEX 


Mediterranean World, 3 

Message: of Jesus, 54 ff., 67; of 
Paul, 169 ff.; the later Chris- 
tian, 230 

Messiah, 79, 83, 84, 87, 90, 91, 104, 
PE7 C15. Tors eeAy be 7, 120, BS2, 
185, 192, 216, 220, 223 

Messianic hope, 24, 25 f., 56, 121, 
125 

Micah, 157 

Mishna, xxiv 

Mithra, cult of, 13 

Modein, 20 

Moffatt, James, xi 

Mohammedanism, 45 

Monotheism, 11, 23, 157 

Morality in Roman Empire, to 

Moses, 79, 113, 116, 202 

Mount of Olives, 98, 101 

Mural decorations, xxiv 

Mystery religions, 12ff., 233, 
245{.; characteristics of, 12; 
origin of, 14 

Mysticism, 234 


Nationalistic religions, 9 

Nazarenes, 148, 215 

Nazareth, 38, 40, 42, 49 

Nero, xxi 

Neronian persecution, xxili, xxv, 
225 

New Testament, 232, 235, 242 

Nicea, council of, xxiii 


Oral gospel, 218 
Organization, 240f. 
Osiris, 13 f. 


Palestine, history and _ political 
conditions, 18 ff.; people, 18; 
topography, 17 f. 

Paphos, 180 

Papias, xviii, xix, 218, 219 

Papyri, 8 


267 


Parables, Marriage Feast, 95; 
Two Sons, 953 Vinedressers, 95 

Parthians, 21 

Passover, 85 

Pastoral epistles, 242 

Patristic writings, 232 

Paul: account of appearances of 
Jesus, 113; birthplace, 153; 
challenged by Jewish legalists, 
128; Commission, 164; communi- 
cations with Corinth, 193 ff.; 
conversion, 1509 ff.; date of birth, 
152; early life, I 52 f.; education, 
ne "ft; family and home train- 
ing, 1 33: four letters to the 
Corinthians, 1093 ff.; Hebrew 
descent, 154; idealism, 232; 
his two names, 152, 155; im- 
prisonment at Caesarea, 1096; 
imprisonment at Rome, 1096; 
influences toward conversion, 
160 ff.; letters as sources, xvii; 
message, 169 ff.; persecutes the 
disciples, 159; plan of evangel- 
izing, 192; uke of Peter, 
205 f.; beisemeatt 165 f.; Roman 
citizenship, 154; trade, 154; 
trial of, 225; vision, 163 f.; see 
also the Table of Contents 

Paulus, Sergius, 180 

Pella, 215 

Pentateuch, 141 

Pentecost, 119, 120, 157, 196 

Perea, 22, 86, 215 

Perga, 183 

Persecutions of Christians, 224 ff. 

Peter, 46, 49, 52, 84, 113, 119, 121, 
122,124, 142ff., 152,107, 205,219 

Li Peter, 226,/220 

IT: Peter, 231, (232;)240 

Peter, Gospel of, xxiv, 112 

Pharisees, 21, 25, 37, 52, 57% 59; 
65, 76 BS; 83, 87, gt, 157 

Philemon, 192 

Philip, the evangelist, 141 ff. 


Philip, the tetrarch, see Herod 
Philip 


268 


Philippi, 184 f. 

Philippians, letter to, 197 

Philo, 27, 28 

Philosophy, 11, 234 

Phoenicia, 17 

Phrygia, 190 

Phylacteries, 76 

Pilate, Pontius, xxv, 22, 104, 105 

“Pillar” apostles, 204, 206 

Pious, party so called, 19, 20 

Pliny, the Younger, xxv, 227 

Plutarch, 4 

Polycarp, 232 

Polytheism, 9, 222 

Pompey, 21 

Prejudice 
222 ff. 

Presbyters, 240, 242 

Priscilla, 188, 190, 191 

Procurators, 7 

Prodigal Son, parable of, 65, 173 

Prophets, 242 

Propitiation, 173 

Proselytes, 29, 184 

Proselyting by Jews, 157 

Publicans, 8 


against Christians, 


Rabbi, 155, 158 

Ransom, 170, 175 

Rebellion of the Jews against 
Rome, 215 ff. 

Reconciliation, 163 

Records of the origin of Chris- 
tianity, xviiff., 216 ff. 

Redemption, 170 ff. 

Rejection of Israel, 220 

Relief visit to Jerusalem, 186 f. 

Religion in Roman Empire, 9 ff. 

Resurrection, 112 ff., 220 

Revelation, 226, 229, 231, 232 

Righteousness, 175 

Rivals of Christianity, 191, 233 ff. 


THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


Roads, Roman, 5 
Roman citizenship, 28 


Roman Empire: extent of, 5; life 
in, 8; policy toward provinces, 
7{.; religion and morality in, 
9 ff. 


Romans, letter to, 195, 209 
Rome, 22, 45, 191, 195, 190f. 


Sabbath, 74 

Sacrilege, 223 

Sadducees, 21, 77, 95, 97) 130, 
136 f. 

Sanhedrin, 19, 104, 108, 134, 152, 
156, 158, 159, 160, 161 

Samaritan woman, 61, 68 

Samaritans, 141 

Satan, 46 

Saul of Tarsus, 136, 137, 147 f., 152 

Scribes, 62, 80, 97 

Second coming, 189 

Seneca, 11, 189 

Septuagint, 28 

Sergius Paulus, 180f. 

Shammai, school of, 156 f. 

Sibylline, Oracles, 26 

Sidon, 71 

Silas, 183, 185 f., 222 

Simon of Cyrene, 106 

Simon the leper, 99 

Sinai, Mount of, 120 

Slavery, 10 

Slaves, 171 

Social conditions in Roman Em- 
pire, 8 

Solomon, Psalms of, 26 

Sons of God, 66, 171, 174, 176 

Sources for origin of Christianity, 
xvii ff., 216 ff. 

Spirit, the, 180 

Spirit of Christ, 176 

Spirit of God, 118, 119 f., 181 

Spirit of Jesus, 174 


INDEX 


Spirits, evil, so ff., 180 

Stephen, 128, 134ff., 152, 158, 
161 f. 

Stoicism, 11 f., 232, 238 

Strabo, 27, 153 

Suetonius, xxv 

Supper, Last, 162 

Synagogue, 29, 132, 181f. 

Synagogue schools, 39, 155 

Synoptic Gospels, xxii, xxviii, 80 

Syria, 17, 167, 168, 183 

Syro-Phoenician woman, 40, 82 


Tacitus, annals, xxv, 225 
Tarsus, 152 f., 169 


Teaching, of Jesus, 50, 54 ff.; of 
Paul, 169 ff. 

Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 
XXlli, 241 


Temple, 28, 92, 93, 94, 97, 131, 132, 
134, 136; desecration of, 20; 
reconsecration of, 20 


Temptation of Jesus, 38 f., 39 
Tennyson, 162 

Tertullian, 223 

I Thessalonians, 189 

II Thessalonians, 189 


269 


Thessalonica, 186 f., 189 
Tiberias, capital of Galilee, 78 
Tiberius, xxvi, 4, 33 

Timothy, 184, 185, 197, 211 
ITimothy, 231, 232; 242 

II Timothy, 242 

Titus, 194, 195, 203, 208, 212 
Titus, letter to, 242 

Tongues, speaking with, 119 ff. 
Trajan, xxv, 227, 228 
Transfiguration, 84, 102 
ibravels st, 

Treason, 223 

Troas, 184 

Twelve, the, 126, 138, 218, 219 
Tyre and Sidon, 71, 81, 82 


Universal Empire, 2 
Upper Room, t1oof. 


Ventriloquism, 184 
Venus, 180 


Women converts, 184 


Zechariah’s prophecy, gt 
Zechariah, song of, 38 


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